Romanism and the Reformation: From the Standpoint of Prophecy

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LIGHT FOR THE LAST DAYS.
A Study Historical and Prophetical.

By Mr. and Mrs. H. Gr.attan Guinness, Authors of
"The Approaching End of the Age."

IViik Diagrams, In Svo^ cloth. Price I2x.

*' We commend Mr. Guinness' book as well worthy of the examination of the
thoughtful student of Scripture, to whatever school of the interpretation of
prophecy he may Xtdong^—Rock.

*' We cordially welcome and recommend to all who are seeking light for the
last days this excellent compendium of the opinions and deductions of two most
practiod and earnest evangelists." — British and Foreign Evangelical Review.

'' It is impossible to read this book without feeling^ that it propounds a theory
which explauns a great bulk of prophecy upon a consistent system ; upon a system
for which a large amount of histoncal proof can be adduced ; and, above all, uooa
a system which is clear, definite, and precise, without being irreverent. ' —
Recmrd,

*' The work is written in a clear and masterly style, and is most interesting
and valuable."— ^vuMt^/rVa/ Christendom,

" The work is the ablest and most exhausdve from that point of view--the pre-
millennial — which we have had in our hand, and all who wish to acquaint them-
selves with pcemillennialism coidd not do better than consult it." —Primitive
Metkodut.

" This is a verv remarkable book in its way, and will have a strong fascination
for many TBMtA&^ -^Literary Churciunan.

** The book gives evidence of very extensive reading. It is written in a style
both lucid and graceful, and will take rank as one of the standard works of
prophetic literature."— Ofcm/MM Advocate.

'* This book is of very hig^h value to the Church of God, and a worthy successor
to the authors' ' Approaching End of the Age,' which has been pronounced by
competent judges the most valuable work on prophecy published since Elliot's
' Hone.' Its tide, if it seems assumpdous, is^ well justified by its matter ;^ for
the work is a flood of li^t shed on God's dealings from the beginning of time,
but especially illuminatmg the very Ume in which we live, ' the time of the end,
when, as had been promised, the wise should understand what had been hitherto
sealed. . . . It is for the definiteness and convincing clearness with which
the chronology of these times is presented, that longing, waiung believers owe
a debt to our honoured brother and sister that eternity alone can repay." —
Pnilip Hbmsy G<xsb, F.R.S., in the Christian.

*' We have read and re-read this work with profound and grateful interest —
with profound interest because of the wealth of research and discovery which it
contains; and with grateful interest that the historical school of interpretation
has been enriched br such an important addition to its literature. It is impossible
to give an extended review of this book in our brief space, but we wish to express
our sense of its great value, first, as a profound study of prophecy, and a clear
and orderly setting forth of the events of the coming and kingdom of Christ, as
revealed in Scripture : and, secondly, as a most valuable weapon against the two
greatest enemies which the Church is now encountering, ritualism and rational-
ism. The work is careful, scholariy, and singularly free from dof^matism. Let
any candid student of Scripture study it, and if he can avoid being filled with
admiradon and astonishment at the verifications which the events of history gives
to the predictions of prophecy, and the measures of human chronology to the
dates of DiWne (ore knowledge, he must be a prejudiced reader indeed." — Dr.
Gokdom, of Boston, in the Watchword,

London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, ay, Paternoster Row.

THE APPROACHING END OF THE AGE,

Viewed in the Light of History, Pro-
phecy, and Science.
BjT Rev. H. Grattan Guinness.

1VUA Three Diagrams, Tenth Edition^ enlarged and revised.
Seventeenth Thousand, Crown Svo, Js. bd,

** One of the most valuable works oa prophecy given to the Church during the
present generation." — Record,

Lord Shaptssbuky : " I cannot resist the desire I feel to brinjg it under the
immediate and serious attention of the public The writer is evidently a man
of intense piety, unsurpassed diligence, and great ability. His whole aigument
rests on Scripture, but he throws a wondertnl amount of light on |>ropnetical
chronology through the aid of mathematical and astronomicalcalculations."

** This splendid work. For thoroufEhness and completeness it stands alone on
the sublime subject of the premillenmal advent of our Lord." — Rainbcw.

" Worthy of most careful studv by every thoughtful observer of the ways of
Providence, and every sharer of the great hope of the Christian Church."— TAr
iatt Pfv/essor Birks.

** Evinces coosideiable research, and u written in an earnest Christian spirif."
'-Londtm Qmmrttrly Review,

** Curiou^ learned, and ingemous."— /'mMtV Opinion,

** This b in many ways a very remarkable book. If it were only to be judged
io reference to the amount of research it displays, of extensive reading on the
part of the author, and of able exposition of the Scriptures bearing on the
subject, it would ra«ik high indeed. But in addition to the ordinary contents to
be expected in a work on prophecy, we find more than 3|Oo pages, or about half
the book, devoted to a minute iaveadgation, carried out in a most sdemific war,
of the ' Divine svstem of times and seasons natural and revealed.' . . . Vre
are mudi mistaKea if it win not be found to open up a new and almost un-
known re^ioai of investigation as to the nature of the prophetic times, as well as
af the periods of God's dispcnsational dealings : a region which presents a most
delightful field of study to those who love to search the Scriptures^ and at the
same time reverently seek to inquire what analogies are to be found between the
kingdoms of nature and of erace." — Christian.

"An adequate notice of Bir. Guinness's bulky and elaborate volome would
require, not a mere pan^iraph in our review department, but an extended article ;
and we shall not therefore attempt any criticism either of its central position or
of the aivuments by uriuch it is supported. It is a plea for the premillennial
advent oz our Lord Jesus Christ, and an investigation into the system of times
and seasons preaenteid in the word and works of God. The position is a familiar
one, and has given rise to interminable controversies in the Christian Church.
The arguments by which the positicm u sought to be established are. to a large
extent, novel ; bv no means a repetition of those to which we have become ac-
customed in the beaten track. The author has proved himself to be a reverent,
intelligent,' and prayerful student of the Divine revefcitioo : that his sole aim is to
apderstand it angfat, and to bring its lessons to bear upon the present duties and
|»t)spects of die Christian Church. He is not one of the vulgar peculators who
substitute guesses of their own for the assurances of the word ot God : and he
is entirely free from fanaticism and exaggeration. Even those who cannot accept
his conclusions will allow that he has produced a scholariy and masteriy book,
which is well worthy of devout and careful study." — Baptist Maeaxiru.

** Many of its chapters are of great value, especially those on the progressive-
Bess of revelation and fulfilled prophecy. From the researdi and information
which the audhuor has brought to his task the principles of interpretation be has
laid down, the (acts he has adduced in support and illustration of his position,
the astronomic element he has introduced into his argument, and the aeamess
uid bcautv with which the whole is written, we doubt not the book will be
weteomed by many and pass through successive editions. We congratulate the
esteemed author on its {Mtxhictioo, and very heartily commend it to our readers."
^Divine Lift.

London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON. 27. Paterkostek Row.

ROMANISM AND THE REFORMATION.

Romanism and the Reformation

FROM THE STANDPOINT OF PROPHECY.

BY

H. GRATTAN GUINNESS, F.R.G.S.,

Author 0/** Light /or the Last DayTf* " Tht Approaching End of the Age;' etc.

HODDER AND STOUGHTON,

27, PATERNOSTER ROW,

MDCCCLXXXVII.
\All rights reserved, '\

ANDOVER- HARVARD

Theological Library

CAMBKi:^^J. MASS.

BUTLRR Sc TaNNSR,

The Srlwood Pkintinc Works,
Frumk, and London.

A_->v^U^<^<i^

.n ;

••»•>

PREFACE.

T^HE following lectures were delivered, by re-
quest, under the auspices of the Protestant
Educational Institute, at Exeter Hall, in the spring
of this year. That Institute exists to do a much
needed work — to keep alive, especially in the
hearts of the rising generation, some measure of
intelligent sympathy with the Protestant traditions
of our country.

England's Protestantism has long been Eng-
land's glory, and the direct cause of her unrivalled
prosperity and peculiar pre-eminence among the
nations of Europe. That Protestantism is now
sustaining a double attack, from without and from
within. Yet few seem fully alive to the danger.
The late Lord Beaconsfield saw it clearly enough
however, " Your empire and your liberties are
more in danger at this moment," he said, "than
when Napoleon's army of observation was en-

Vll

viii Preface,

camped at Boulogne." What would he have said
had he lived to see the present position of affairs !

The Reformation of the sixteenth century, which
gave birth to Protestantism, was based on Scrip-
ture. It gave back to the world the Bible. It
taught the Scriptures; it exposed the errors and
corruptions of Rome by the use of the sword
of the Spirit It applied THE PROPHECIES, and
accepted their practical guidance. Such Reforma-
tion work requires to be done afresh. We have
suffered prophetic anti-papal truth to be too much
forgotten. This generation is dangerously latitu-
dinarian — indifferent to truth and error on points
on which Scripture is tremendously decided and
absolutely clear.

These lectures, simple and popular as they are,
will, it is hoped, open many minds to perceive
that the Bible gives no uncertain sound as to
Romanism, and that those who will be guided by
its teachings must shun an apostasy against which
the sorest judgments are denounced.

The lectures are given as delivered, with the
exception of the first and last, which have been
extended and modified. In recasting and en-

Preface,

IX

larging the opening lecture on the Daniel fore-
view, and the closing one on the Reformation, I
have availed myself of the valuable help of my

beloved wife, who has for so many years been

*

my fellow labourer both in literary and evangelistic
work,

I shall rejoice if these lectures obtain a wide
circulation, for they contain, I am sure, truth for
the times, — truth deeply and increasingly needed,
not only for the preservation of the civil and
religious liberties of our country and empire, but
for the practical guidance of the people of God in
these last days.

H. GRATTAN GUINNESS.

Harley House, Bow, K,
June \sty 1887.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.
The Daniel Foreview of Romanism

PACK
I

LECTURE IL

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism (Second
Part) 35

LECTURE in.
Paul's Foreview of Romanism

73

LECTURE IV.
John's Foreview ok Romanism

138

LECTURE V.

Interpretation and use of these Prophecies
IN Pre- Reformation Times . .179

LECTURE VI.

Interpretat^ion and Use of these Prophecies
IN Reformation Times

22 ^

Xll

Contents.

LECTURE VII.

PAGE

Interpretation and Use of these Prophecies
IN Post-Reformation Times . . . .261

LECTURE VIII.
Double Foreview of the Reformation

. 301

Concluding Remarks

377

I

LECTURE I.

THE DANIEL FO REVIEW OF ROMANISyf,

TIJ^IFTY years ago the eminent statesman Sir
^ Robert Peel said, with remarkably clear fore-
sight: "The day is not distant, and it may be
very near, when we shall all have to fight the
battle of the Reformation over again."

That day has come. It has been upon us for
some time. It has found us unprepared, and as a
result the battle is to some extent going against
us. More than three centuries of emancipation
from the yoke of Rome — three hundred years of
Bible light and liberty — had made us over-con-
fident, and led us to under-estimate the power and
influence of the deadliest foe, not only of the
gospel of God, but also of Protestant England.
Britain's honourable distinction of being the leading
witness among the nations for the truth of the
gospel and against the errors of Romanism had
come to be lightly esteemed among us. Our
fathers won this distinction through years of sore
struggle and strife; they purchased it with their

Romanism and the Reformation.

best blood, and prized it as men prize that which
costs them dear. It had cost us nothing, we were
born to it ; we knew not its value by contrast as
they did. In the early part of this century the
power of Rome was in these lands a thing of the
past, and it seemed to be fast decaying even in
other lands. The notion grew up among us that
there was no need to fear any revival of that
deadly upas tree, which is the blight of all that
is great and good, pure and prosperous. The light
of true knowledge had for ever dispelled the dark
fogs of superstition, so it was supposed ; mediaeval
tyrannies and cruelties cloaked under a pretence
of religion could never again obtain a footing in
these lands of light and liberty. We might despise
and deride the corruptions and follies of Rome,
but as to dreading her influence — no. She was
too far gone and too feeble to inspire fear, or even
watchfulness.

This was all a delusion, and wc have been
roughly undeceived. The difficult and dangerous
crisis through which England is now passing is the
direct result of the course of action taken under
this delusion, and God only knows what the ulti-
mate consequences may be. A serpent may be
scotched, yet not killed ; it may retain life enough
to turn and inflict on its foe a fatal wound. The

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 3

ground may be purged from a destructive weed,
but the little remnants left behind may sprout and
spread so as speedily to pervade the plot anew.
It has been thus with Romish influence in Pro-
testant England.

Let facts speak. Fifty years ago there were not
five hundred Roman priests in Great Britain ; now
there are two thousand six hundred. Fifty years
ago there were not five hundred chapels; now
there are fifteen hundred and seventy-five. Fifty
years ago there were no monasteries at all in
Britain ; now there are two hundred and twenty-
five. There were even then sixteen convents, but
now there are over four hundred of these barred
and bolted and impenetrable prisons, in which
fifteen thousand Englishwomen are kept prisoners
at the mercy of a celibate clergy, who have power,
unless their behests are obeyed, to inflict on these
hapless and helpless victims torture under the
name of penance. Fifty years ago there were but
two colleges in our land for the training of Roman
Catholic priests — Le. of men bound by oath to act
in England as the agents of a foreign power, the
one great object of which is avowed to be the
dismemberment of our empire and the ruin of our
influence in the world ; now there are twenty-nine
such schools. And, strangest of all, England, who

4 Romanisfn and the Reformation.

once abolished monasteries and appropriated to
national uses the ill-gotten gains of Rome, is now
actually endowing Romanism in her empire to the
extent of over a million of money per annum.
The exact amount is ;^ 1,052,657.

Results even more serious have arisen from the
dropping on the part of evangelical Christianity
of its distinctive testimony against Romish doc-
trine and practice. An apostasy has taken place
in the Reformed Church of England itself, and
multitudes of its members, uninstructed in the
true nature and history of the Church of Rome,
and ignorant of the prophetic teachings of Scrip-
ture about it, have rejoiced in a return to many
of the corruptions of doctrine and practice which
their forefathers died to abolish. Our reformed
faith is thus endangered both from without and
from within, and it can be defended only by a
resolute return to the true witness borne by saints
and martyrs of other days. We must learn afresh
from Divine prophecy God's estimate of the char-
acter of the Church of Rome if we would be
moved afresh to be witnesses for Christ as against
this great apostasy.

As Protestants, as Christians, as free men, as
philanthropists, as those who are acquainted with
the teachings of history, we deplore the existing

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, 5

state of things; we regard all these changes as
a retrograde movement of the most dangerous
character, and we feel constrained to renew the
grand old PROTEST to which the world owes
its modern acquisitions of liberty, knowledge,
peace, and prosperity. We recognise it as a patent
and undeniable fact, that the future of our race
lies not with Papists, but with Protestants. Its
leading nations this day are not Papal Italy, Spain,
and Portugal, but Protestant Germany, England,
and America. What has made the difference.^
The nations that embraced the Reformation move-
ment of the sixteenth century have never since
ceased to advance in political power, social pro-
sperity, philanthropic enterprise, and general en-
lightenment ; while the nations that refused it and
held fast to the corruptions of Rome have as
steadily retrograded in all these respects. "By
their fruits ye shall know them."

The present course of lectures is intended to
arouse fresh attention to the great controversy
between the Church of Rome and evangelical
Churches. In this war the Roman army stands
on one side, and Protestantism in one unbroken
phalanx on the other. The regiments of Rome
wear but one scarlet uniform, fly but one Papal
flag, and use in their religious ceremonies but one

Romanism and the Reformation,

dead language — Latin; the Protestant army, on
the other hand, consists of many divisions, clad
in differing uniforms, flying different flags, and
speaking different tongues. But, like the composite
hosts of Germany in the struggle with France,
they are all the stronger for their voluntary union ;
they can cordially join in the great struggle. The
secondary denominational differences existing
between Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Non-
conformists are all lost sight of in their common
conflict with Rome ; and the sole issue is between
those who hold to the old gospel of Christ and
those who teach another gospel which is not
another.

Our subject in these lectures is Romanism and
the Reformation from the standpoint of prophecy :
that is, we propose to give you, not any merely
human view of the subject, but the Divine view ;
not the opinions of the lecturer about it, but the
teachings of prophets and apostles, the judgment
of the only wise God as expressed in His sacred
word, in this blessed Divine revelation which sheds
its beams on every subject of interest to the people
of God. It is a fact, that though the canon of
Scripture was closed ages before Romanism began
to exist, and fifteen centuries before the Reforma-
tion, yet it presents the Divine judgment as to

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, 7

both. The Bible records the past in its histories
and the future in its prophecies, which are simply
history written beforehand. It expresses more-
over moral judgments as to the individuals it
describes and the acts which it records, and it
similarly expresses moral judgments respecting
the individuals and actions which it predicts. It
warned the Church against the wiles of Rome
Papal, even from the days of Rome pagan. John,
the victim of Nero and Domltian, painted pictures
for posterity of the martyrs of the Inquisition, and
the cruelties of tyrants more merciless than the
Caesars. In viewing this question from the stand-
point of prophecy, consequently, our object is, not
merely to trace the fulfilment of sacred prediction
in the broad facts of history, as a proof of the
inspiration of Scripture — though our lectures must
of course do that — but it is even more to present
the Divine view of tJie Roman Papal system^ to
show what infinite reprobation and abhorrence
Scripture pours upon it, and what an awful doom
it denounces against it If we know what God
thinks of any system, we know what we ought to
think of it and how we ought to act towards it.
Forewarned is forearmed. Had the youth of the
last two or three generations of England been
carefully instructed in the Scriptures bearing on

8 Romanism and the Reformation.

this subject, we should not have lived to see our
country troubled and in peril of dismemberment
through Jesuit intrigues, nor our national Church
divided against itself, to its own imminent danger,
and one section of it relapsing into the apostasy
from which the Reformation had delivered it

Let me first define distinctly the three terms
in our title — Romanism, the Reformation, and
Prophecy. Let me answer the questions — What
IS Romanism ? What was the Reformation ? What
is Prophecy ?

I. Romanism is apostate Latin Christi-

ANITY — not apostate Christianity merely, but
apostate Latin Christianity. The Greek Church,
the Armenian Church, the Coptic Church are all
apostate in greater or less degrees, and the Pro-
testant Church itself has no small measure of
apostasy in it ; but it is of Romanism, or Latin
Christianity, alone that we now speak, because it
is the great and terrible powfer of evil so largely
predicted by the prophet Daniel and by the Apostle
John ; it is the special apostasy which bulks most
largely in prophecy, and it is the culmination of
Christian apostasy. It includes all whose public
worship is conducted in Latin and who own alle-
giance to the Pope of Rome.

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 9

Dean Milman's history of the Church of Rome
IS called " The History of Latin ChristiaytityV
Archbishop Trench, speaks of Gregory the Great,
as " the last of the Latin Fathers, and the first in
the modern sense of the Popes," and says he " did
more than any other to set the Church forward on
the new lines on which it must travel, to constitute
a Latin Christianity with distinctive features of its
own, such as broadly separate it from Greek." ^
Romanism is this Latin Christianity become
apostate.

IL The Reformation was A RETURN TO

PRIMITIVE OR NON-APOSTATE CHRISTIANITY

accomplished between three and four centuries ago
in this country, in Germany, and some other
countries of Europe. One feature of this great
movement was the abandonment of the use of
Latin in public worship, and the translation of the
Scriptures into living languages, so that all nations
might read the word of God in their own tongue,
and understand for themselves its sacred messages.
The names of Luther, Zwingle, Erasmus, Tyndall,
Knox, Calvin, Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, Hooper,
and others, are associated with this " Reforma-
tion."

III. And, in the third place, Prophecy is

* " Mediaeval Church History," p. 14.

lo Romanism and the Reformation.

THE DIVINELY GIVEN MIRROR OF THE FUTURE.

"Things not seen as yet" are reflected on its
surface with more or less distinctness. They may
be partially discerned beforehand, and clearly
identified when the time of fulfilment comes.
Thus the first advent of Christ was shown, though
but as in a glass darkly, thousands of years before
it took place ; and so the tragic episodes of the
siege of Jerusalem were presented to the mind
of Moses ages before the city was even built.
Romanism and the Reformation both lay afar in
the distant future when Daniel and John foresaw
their history ; but their prophetic visions and
writings reflect both one and the other with a
distinctness and clearness which is the exact
equivalent of their magnitude and importance in
the history of the Church and of the world.
Bear in mind these three brief definitions ;

I. Romanism is apostate Latin Christianity.

II. The Reformation was a return to primitive
non-apostate Christianity accomplished three cen-
turies ago.

III. Prophecy is the mirror of the future.

Let us next inquire, What is this Romanism,
or Latin Christianity, as distinguished from Greek,
or Protestant, or any other form of the faith of

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 1 1

Christ? As to its doctrines and practices, we
will answer this question later on in our course
of lectures, quoting from its own acknowledged
standards. For the present we must confine our-
selves to a consideration of its history. But before
I give you a brief outline of this, I may state
that there are three distinct sets of prophecies of
the rise, character, deeds, and doom of Roman-
ism. The first is found in the book of Daniel,
the second in the epistles of Paul, and the third
in the letters and Apocalypse of John ; and
no one of these three is complete in itself. It
is only by combining their separate features
that we obtain the perfect portrait. Just as
we cannot derive from one gospel a complete
life of Christ, but in order to obtain this must
take into account the records in the other three ;
so we cannot from one prophecy gather a correct
account of antichrist, we must add to the par-
ticulars given in one those supplied by the other
two. Some features are given in all three pro-
phecies, just as the death and resurrection of
Christ are given in all four gospels. Others are
given only in two, and others are peculiar to one.
As might be expected from the position and
training of the prophet, who was a statesman
and a governor in Babylon, Daniel's foreview

12 Romanism and tJie Reformation.

presents the political character and relations
of Romanism. The Apostle Paul's foreview, on
the other hand, gives the ecclesiastical char-
acter and relations of this power ; and John's
prophecies, both in Revelation xiii. and xvii.,
present the combination of both, the mutual
relations of the Latin Church and Roman State.
He uses composite figures, one part of which
represents the political aspect of Romanism as a
temporal government, and the other its religious
aspect as an ecclesiastical system.

In this lecture we deal with Daniel's political
foreview, with his predictions of the great power
of evil which was revealed to him as destined to
arise in the fourth empire, and which he describes
in chapter vii. of his book. Before we consider
this prophecy you must allow me briefly to recall
a few well-known historical facts, that none can
deny or question.

The last twenty-five centuries of human history
— that is, the story of the leading nations of the
earth since the days of Nebuchadnezzar — has
been divided into two chronologically equal parts,
each lasting for about twelve and a half centuries.
During the first half of this period four great
heathen empires succeeded each other in the rule
of the then known earth — the Babylonian, Medo-

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 1 3

Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. They
lasted from the eighth century before Christ to the
fifth century of our era, and ended with the fall of
the last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustulus,
A.D. 476. During the second half of this period
no one great empire has ever ruled over the
whole sphere dominated by these old pagan
governments. Power has been more divided, and
modern kingdoms have replaced ancient empires.
A commonwealth of nations has for the last
twelve hundred years existed in the territory
once governed by old Rome, and no monarch
has ever succeeded in subjecting them all to him-
self. This makes a broad distinction between
ancient and modern times, and the dividing line
is tJu fall of tlu old Roman empire, the break up
of the last form of ancient civilization, the one
which preceded our modern Christian civiliza-
tion.

Rome itself — that great and ancient city — was
founded about the beginning of the long period I
have named, and has therefore been in existence
for nearly two thousand six hundred years, though
for many centuries it had but a local reputation.
Gradually it rose to importance, and in the second
century before Christ it attained supremacy in the
earth. After that it was for about five hundred

1

14 Romanism and the Reformation.

years the magnificent metropolis of the last and
mightiest of the four great empires of antiquity
the seat of its government, — the very heart and
centre of the then known world. Nineveh and
Babylon had each in its day been great metro-
politan cities of wonderful size, wealth, and
influence; but the realms they ruled were small
compared to those over which Rome in its zenith
of power exercised her imperial sway. She was
for long ages, in the esteem of all civilized nations
as well as in her own, " mistress of the world."
Her proud pre-eminence of position was based
on an unequalled degree of military strength and
power. It was a rule, not of right, but of might,
and it subjected the world to itself. Remains still
extant, not only in all parts of Europe, but in
Africa and Asia, and above all in Rome itself,
sufficiently attest the wide extent of the sway of
Rome, the luxury of her princes and people, and
the refinements of her civilization. Roman roads,
Roman camps, Roman baths, Roman coins,
statues, and remains of every kind abound even
in our own little isle, some of which have been
examined with interest by most of us. Roman
laws, Roman literature, and the fundamental
relation of the Latin language to the languages of
modern Europe afford clearer evidences still of the

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 1 5

universal, mighty, and long-enduring influence of
the ancient masters of the world.

Up to the beginning of the fourth century of
our era Rome was a pagan city, and the emperor
was the high priest of its religion. The ruins of
its old heathen shrines still adorn the city. The
Pantheon, which is now a church dedicated to the
Virgin Mary and all the martyrs, was formerly a
heathen temple dedicated to Cybele and all the
gods of the ancient mythology. But in the fourth
century of our era heathenism fell prostrate before
that faith of Christ, which for three centuries Rome
had persecuted and sought to exterminate ; the
religion of Jesus of Nazareth overthrew the religion
of Jupiter Olympius, and the Emperor Constantine
established Christianity as the creed of the world.
Rome had become the seat of a Christian bishop
before that date, and in the division and decay
of the Roman empire which soon followed, this
bishop, owing to his metropolitan position, became
a person of great importance and the head of Latin
Christianity. As other rulers passed away, and as
the power of Rome waned before the hordes of
Gothic and Vandal invaders, the Christian bishop-
ric, sole survival of the old institutions in Rome,
raised its head like a rocky reef in the midst of a
wild expanse of roaring billows. It remained when

1 6 Ronianisin and the Reformation.

all else failed around it. At first it had itself
been a small, weak, new thing under the shadow
of a great, mighty, and ancient power. But time
brought changes, and gradually it became the
stable, strong, and only ancient thing in the midst
of the turbulent young Gothic nations into which
the fragments of the old Roman dominions slowly
crystallized. To these rude and recently evan-
gelized people the Church of Rome was naturally
the mother Church, and the Bishop of Rome
the chief of Christian bishops. The tendency of
the Latin episcopate thus eiithroiud in the old
metropolis of the world, in the midst of ignorant,
superstitious, and child-like Gothic nations, was to
become first a monarchical^ and then an imperial
power. This tendency was deep and enduring ; it
worked for centuries, till at last it produced that
singular blasphemous usurpation and tyrannical
government which we call the Papacy.

The rise of this power was, like all great growths,
gradual and slow. From the middle of the fifth
century to the end of the thirteenth — ue, for be-
tween eight and nine hundred years — it was
steadily waxing greater and greater, rising higher
and higher, reaching forth its branches more
widely, and making more extravagant claims and
pretensions. Time would of course fail me to

The Daniel Forevtew of Romanism. 1 7

trace the rise of ecclesiastical power in the middle
ages to the monstrous proportions it assumed in
the thirteenth century. After the conversion of
Constantino, when Christianity became the estab-
lished religion of the Roman world, the Church
passed rapidly from a state of persecution, poverty,
and distress to one of honour, wealth, and ease ;
and it degenerated as rapidly from its early purity.
Covetousness and avarice came in like a flood, and
ecclesiastical power became an object of eager
ambition, even to ungodly men. The bishop was
a wealthy, influential, worldly dignitary, instead of
a humble Christian pastor. Opulence poured in
upon the priesthood, alike from the fears and the
affections of their converts, and their intellectual
superiority over the barbarian nations had the
effect of increasing still more their ascendency.
The time came when they alone retained any
semblance of learning, or could prepare a treaty
or write a document, or teach princes to read. By
a variety of sordid frauds they contrived to secure
to the Church immense wealth and an enormous
share of the land. But they recognised their own
subjection to the secular power, and respected
mutually each other's independence. Claims to
supremacy over other bishops began however be-
fore long to be advanced by the bishops of Rome,

C

1 8 Romanism and t/u Reformation.

sometimes on one ground and sometimes on an-
other, but it was long before they were admitted.

Papal authority indeed made no great pro-
gress beyond the bounds of Italy until the end of
the sixth century. At this period the celebrated
Gregory I., a talented, active, and ambitious man,
was Bishop of Rome. He stands at the meeting
place of ancient and mediaeval history, and his
nfluence had a marked effect on the growth of
Latin Christianity. He exalted his own position
very highly in his correspondence and intercourse
with other bishops and with the sovereigns of
western Europe, with whom he was in constant
communication. Claims that had previously been
only occasionally suggested were now systemati-
cally pressed and urged. He dwelt much on the
power conferred on the bishops of Rome in the
possession of the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
which were committed to Peter and his succes-
sors. The Gothic nations were too ignorant to
unravel the sophistries of this clever and deter-
mined priest, and they permitted him to assume
a kind of oversight of their ecclesiastical matters.

His successor, Boniface HI., carried these pre-
tensions still higher. He was the last of the
bishops of Rome and the first of the popes. In
his days the claim to supremacy over all other

Tlie Daniel Foreview of Ro^nanism. 19

bishops was, not only definitely made, but it was
acknowledged by the secular power and confirmed
by an imperial edict. The wicked usurper Phocas,
to serve his own selfish purposes, conceded to
Boniface III. in A.D. 607 the headship over all the
Churches of Christendom. A pillar is still stand-
ing in Rome which was erected in memory of this
important concession. This was a tremendous
elevation, the first upward step on the ladder that
led the bishops of Rome from the humble pastor-
ate of a local Church to the mightiest throne in
Europe. But still all that was claimed or granted
was simple episcopacy^ though of a universal kind ;
no thought of secular government existed at this
period. The matter however did not stop here.
This supreme episcopal jurisdiction led to constant
interferences of the Roman bishop in the affairs
of the various nations of Christendom, and to ever-
increasing pretensions to authority in matters
secular as well as ecclesiastical, until five hundred
years later, in A.D. 1073, Pope Gregory VII. took
a great stride in advance, and established

A THEOCRACY ON EARTH.

He was the first who claimed, as the represen-
tative of Deity, to be above all the kings in the
world. This proud and self-exalting man strove.

20 Romanism and the Reformation.

and strove successfully, not only to emancipate the
spiritual power from all control by the State, not
only to secure for it absolute independence, but,
further, to subject the secular power of princes to
the spiritual power of priests, and thus to establish
at Rome in his own person and in the succession
of the Roman pontiffs an absolute and supreme
ruler of the world. Nor did he propound this
new and startling doctrine as a theory only. With
daring audacity he excommunicated the German
emperor Henry IV., released his subjects from
allegiance to him, and forbade them to obey him
as sovereign.^ He actually succeeded in exacting
humiliating concessions from the emperor, and yet
he subsequently bestowed his kingdom on another.
This pope turned the bishopric of Rome into a
universal atid unlimited monarchy^ and the sove-

* " Wherefore, trusting in the justice and mercy of God,
and of His blessed mother, the ever-blessed Virgin Mary,
on your authority (that of St. Peter and St. Paul), the above-
named Henry and all his adherents I excommunicate and
bind in the fetters of anathema ; on the part of God Al-
mighty, and on yours, I interdict him from the government
of all Germany and of Italy. I deprive him of all royal
power and dignity. I prohibit every Christian from render-
ing him obedience as king. I absolve all who have sworn
or shall swear allegiance to his sovereignty from their
oaths." — MiLMAN : "History of Latin Christianity," vol. iv.,
p. 121.

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, 2 1

reigns of Europe were unable to oppose his
unprecedented usurpations. He established also
an undisguised and irresistible despotism over the
national Churches in other lands, by enacting that
no bishop in the Catholic Church should enter
on the exercise of his functions until the pope
had confirmed his election, a law of far reaching
and vast importance, by which perhaps more than
by any other means Rome sustained for centuries
her temporal power as well as her ecclesiastical
influence.

Many of the constant quarrels between our own
early English kings and the popes of Rome, as
well as many similar feuds on the continent, arose
out of this flagrant usurpation of national rights
and invasion of national liberties. It virtually took
from the Churches the power to appoint their own
bishops and placed them under a foreign despot-
ism. The clergy of all nations were by this time
enslaved to the Papacy, and by obeying its bulls
of excommunication and giving effect to its inter-
dicts they placed in the pope's hand a lever to
move the world. During the interdict the churches
in a country were all closed, bells silent, the dead
unburied ; no masses could be performed, no rites
except those of baptism and extreme unction cele-
brated. This state of things was so dreadful to

22 Romanism and the Reformation.

a superstitious age, that monarchs were obliged to
yield lest their people should revolt The result
of every such interdict was an increase to the
power of the Papacy, and they soon brought all
refractory rulers in Europe to terms.

When the maxims of Gregory VII. had been
acted out for a century, and the power to trample
on the necks of kings had come to be regarded
by churchmen as an inherent right of the Papacy,
the proud spirit of Papal aggression reached its
climax. The period of climax may be dated from
the pontificate of Innocent III., A.D. 1198. The
leading objects which the Roman pontiffs had
steadily pursued for centuries seemed at last at-
tained : independent sovereignty, absolute supre-
macy over the Christian Church, and full control
over the princes of Europe.

The historian Hallam says of this man : " He
was formidable beyond all his predecessors, per-
haps beyond all his successors. On every side
the thunder of Rome broke over the heads of
princes."^ He excommunicated Sweno, king of

* " The three great sovereigns of western Europe, the
kings of Germany, of France, and of England, had seen
their realms under Papal interdict, themselves under sen-
tence of excommunication. But the Papal power under
Innocent not only aspired to humble the loftiest : hardly one
of the smaller kingdoms had not already been taught, or was

— - ..?

The Daniel Foreview of Rontanism. 23

Norway ; threatened the king of Hungary to alter
the succession ; put the kingdom of Castile under
an interdict ; and when Philip Augustus of France
refused at his bidding to take back his repudiated
wife, Innocent did not hesitate to punish the whole
nation by putting France also under the same
dreaded penalty, until her king humbly submitted
to the pope's behest. King John of England and
Philip II. of Aragon were both constrained to
resign their kingdoms and receive them back as
spiritual fiefs from the Roman pontiff, who claimed
also the right to decide the election of the em-
perors of Germany by his confirmation or veto.
" The noonday of Papal dominion extends from
the pontificate of Innocent III. inclusively to that
of Boniface VI 1 1., or, in other words, throughout
the thirteenth century. Rome inspired during this
age all tlie terror of lier ancient name ; s/ie was
once more tlu mistress of the worlds and kings were
her vassalsr ^

not soon taught, to feel the awful majesty of the Papacy.
From the Northern Ocean to Hungary, from Hungary to
the Spanish shore of the Atlantic, Innocent is exercising
what takes the language of protective or parental authority,
but which in most cases is asserted by the terrible inter-
dict" — MiLMAN : " History of Latin Christianity," vol. v.,

p. 305.
* Hallam : " History of the Middle Ages," p. 368, 4th ed.

24 Romanism and the Reformation.

Innocent III. claimed also the right to dispense
with both civil and canon law when he pleased,
and to decide cases by the plenitude of his own
inherent power. He dispensed also with the obli-
gation of promises made on oaths, undermining
thus the force of contracts and treaties. The
military power of the Papacy dates also from this
man, as the crusades had left him in possession
of an army. Systematic persecution of so called
heretics began also in this pontificate. The cor-
ruptions, cruelties, and assumptions of the Papacy
had become so intolerable, that protests were
making themselves heard in many quarters. It
was felt these must be silenced at any cost, and
a wholesale slaughter of heretics was commenced
with a view to their extermination. The Inquisi-
tion was founded, the Albigenses and Waldenses
were murderously persecuted, and superstition and
tyranny were at their height From this century
Papal persecution of the witnesses for the truth
never ceased until the final establishment of Pro-
testantism at the end of the seventeenth century.

In A.D. 1294 Boniface VIII. became pope, and
by his superior audacity he threw into the shade
even Innocent III. He deserves to be designated
the most usurping of mankind, as witness his
celebrated bull Unam Sanctam. In this docu-

- ■•.■..

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 25

ment the full claims of the Papacy come out. We
have noted several ever-increasing stages of Papal
assumption already, but now we reach the climax
— t/ie claim which, if it were a true one, would
abundantly justify all the rest; we reach the
towering pinnacle and topmost peak of human
self-exaltation. What was the claim of Boniface
VIII.? It was that

THE POPE REPRESENTS GOD UPON EARTH.

As this claim is the most extraordinary and
audacious ever made by mortal man, I will state
it, not in my own words, but in the words of the
highest Papal authority. In the summary of things
concerning the dignity, authority, and infallibility
of the pope, set forth by Boniface VIII. are these
words : " The pope is of so great dignity and
excellence, that he is not merely man, but as ij
God^ and the vicar of God {jion simplex liomo^
sed quasi Dens, et Dei vicarius). The pope alone
is called most holy, . . . Divine monarch, and
supreme emperor, and king of kings. . . . The
pope is of so great dignity and power, that he
constitutes one and the same tribunal with Christ
{faciat unum et idem tribunal cum Christo), so that
whatsoever the pope does seems to proceed from
the mouth of God {ab ore Deo). . . . The

26 Romaiiisvi and the Reformation.

pope is as God on earth {papa est QUASI Deus

IN TERRA)."

That which was claimed by Boniface VIII. in
the thirteenth century has been claimed ever since
by a succession of popes down to Pius IX. and Leo
XIII. in the nineteenth century. The pope speaks
to-day as the vicar of Christ, as God's vicegerent.
The great oecumenical council of 1870 proclaimed
him such, and declared him to be INFALLIBLE!
A professor of history in the Roman university,
writing on the council of 1870, uses the following
language, which strikingly expresses the Papal
ideal : " The pope is not a power among men to
be venerated like another. But he is a power
altogether Divine. He is the propounder and
teacher of the law of the Lord in the whole
universe ; he is the supreme leader of the nations,
to guide them in the way of eternal salvation ; he
is the common father and universal guardian of
the whole human species in the name of God.
The human species has been perfected in its
natural qualities by Divine revelation and by the
incarnation of the Word, and has been lifted up
into a supernatural order, in which alone can it
find its temporal and eternal felicity. Tlu treasures
of revelation^ t/ie treasures of truths tlu treasures of
righteousness^ the treasures of supernatural graces

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, 2 7

upon earthy have been deposited by God in the Iiands
of one man^ wJio is the sole dispenser and keeper of
them. The Hfc-giving work of the Divine incarna-
tion, work of wisdom, of love, of mercy, is cease-
lessly continued in the ceaseless action of one
man, thereto ordained by Providence. This man
is the pope. This is evidently implied in his
designation itself, the vicar of Christ, For if he
holds the place of Christ upon earth, that means
that he continues the work of Christ in the world,
and is in respect of us what Christ ivoidd be if
He were liere below, Himself visibly governing tlte
Churchr 1

Do you hear these words ? Do you take them
in? Do you grasp the thought which they ex-
press ? Do you perceive the main idea and central
principle of the Papacy ? The pope is not simply
man, but " as if God " and " the vicar of God," as
God on earth. No wonder the sentence is addressed
to every pope on his coronation, " Know thou art
the father of princes and kings,- and tlie governor
of tlie world'' ; no wonder that he is worshipped
by cardinals and archbishops and bishops, by
priests and monks and nuns innumerable, by all
the millions of Catholics throughout the world ; no

> Cited in " The Pope, the Kings, and the People."
By Rev. William Arthur, M.A., vol. i., p. 211,

28 Romanism and the Reformation.

wonder that he has dethroned monarchs and given
away kingdoms, dispensed pardons and bestowed
indulgences, canonized saints, remitted purgatorial
pains, promulgated dogmas, and issued bulls and
laws and extravagants, laid empires under inter-
dicts, bestowed benedictions, and uttered ana-
themas !

Who is like unto him on the earth ? What are
great men, philosophers, statesmen, conquerors,
princes, kings, and even emperors of the earth
compared to HIM ? Their glory is of the earth,
earthy; his is from above, it is Divine! He is
the representative of Christ, the Creator and Re-
deemer, the Lord of alL He is as Christ ; he takes
the place of Christ. He is as God, as God on
earth. This blasphemous notion is the keystone
of the entire Papal arch ; it is the stupendous
axis on which the whole Papal world has rotated
for ages, and is rotating at this hour.

But to complete this very brief sketch of the
history of Romanism, I may just remind you that
the long and chequered decline of Papal dominion
may be dated from the pontificate of Boniface
Vni., from the end of the thirteenth century.
Early in the next century Clement V. took the
strange and fatal step of removing the seat of
Papal government from Rome to Avignon, where

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 29

it remained for seventy years, greatly to the detri-
ment of its authority and power. There it was to
some extent dependent on the court of France,
and it also lost the affections of Italy and the
prestige of Rome. Then came the great schism
which seriously weakened and discredited the Pa-
pacy. Rival popes ruled at Rome and Avignon.
Corruption and rapacity, demoralization and dis-
affection rapidly increased, and there supervened
that darkest hour of the night which precedes the
dawn.

Ere long Wycliffe, the morning star of the
Reformation, arose, and at last came the blessed
movement itself, with Martin Luther and the rest
of the reformers, which delivered Germany, Eng-
land, and other lands from the Papal yoke, dividing
Christendom into two camps, Romanist and Protes-
tant. Vainly did Rome seek with frantic efforts
to arrest or reverse this movement! Hecatombs
of martyrs, oceans of blood, centuries of wars
could not stop it. At the beginning of the i6th
century Rome boasted that not a single heretic
could be found ; now Christendom contains a hun-
dred and fifty millions of those whom the Papacy
calls heretics, and whom it would exterminate by
fire and sword if it could. It did succeed in
crushing out the Reformation movement in France,

30 Romanism and the Reformation.

Spain, and Italy by awful Inquisition tortures, by
bloody massacres, by cruel wars, by the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, by the deeds of such men
as Philip of Spain with his armada, and the Duke
of Alva with his cruelties in the Netherlands.
Rome recovered some of the ground she lost in
the Reformation, and she still exercises spiritual
power over a hundred and eighty millions of
mankind. Though her temporal power was over-
thrown for a time in the French Revolution, and
to the joy of Italy brought to an end in 1870,
her claim to it is in no wise abated, nor her
pretension that she has a right to rule the world.
The religion of Rome has so disgusted the con-
tinental nations, that, knowing nothing better, they
have drifted into practical infidelity, and with one
consent they have to a large extent despoiled the
Church of her revenues, secularized her property
and her religious houses, and repudiated her inter-
ference in their respective governments.

For the last five hundred years the authority
of the Papacy has been declining. " Slowly and
silently receding from their claims to temporal
power, the pontiffs hardly protect their dilapi-
dated citadel from the revolutionary concussions
of modern times, the rapacity of governments,
and the growing aversion to ecclesiastical in-

iaiii I m%0mdiimmmik3^iii9iimmtimMm>^m

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 3 1

fluence. . . . Those who know what Rome
has once been are best able to appreciate what
she is. Those who have seen the thunderbolt
in the hands of the Gregories and the Innocents,
will hardly be intimidated at the sallies of de-
crepitude, the impotent dart of Priam amid the
crackling ruins of Troy.*' So wrote Henry
Hallam in the early part of this century ; and
while the fall of the temporal power has since
taken place, and carried to low-water mark that
steady ebb tide of Papal influence which he
alleges, yet there has been during the last half
century a revival of Romish influence in Protestant
natiotts^ which Hallam probably did not expect.
I must not pause to estimate the causes or the
importance of this revival here, but shall have
occasion to allude to it again later on.

Let me now propose to you a puzzle. It is to
condense into some brief, simple sentences, which
could be read in a few minutes, an accurate,
comprehensive, graphic summary of the thirteen
hundred years of Papal history. Milman's " His-
tory of Latin Christianity " is here on the table.
It occupies nine octavo volumes, and would take
weeks to read. Ranke's " History of the Popes "
is in three volumes, and does not cover the whole
subject D'Aubign^'s " History of the Reforma-

32 Romanism and the Reformation.

tion" is in five volumes, and takes up only one
episode of the long story. The Papacy has
existed for thirteen centuries, has had to do with
forty or fifty generations of mankind in all the
countries of Christendom. Its history is conse-
quently extremely complicated and various. It
embraces both secular and ecclesiastical matters,
and has more or less to do with all that has
happened in Europe since the fall of the old
Roman empire. The time is long, the sphere
vast, the story exceedingly complex. I want you
to tell it all, in outline at least, in a narrative that
you could read in less than five minutes or write in
ten. You must bring in every point of import-
ance : the time and circumstances of the origin of
the Papacy, its moral character, its political rela-
tions, its geographical seat, its self-exalting utter-
ances and acts, its temporal sovereignty, and a
comparison of the extent of its dominions with
those of the other kingdoms of Europe ; its blas-
phemous pretensions, its cruel and long-continued
persecutions of God's people, the duration of its
dominion, its present decay, and the judgments
that have overtaken it; and you must moreover
add what you think its end is likely to be, and
explain the relation of the whole history to the
revealed plan of Divine providence. You must

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 33

get all this in — not in the dry style of an annual
Tinus summary of the events of the year, — but
in an interesting, vivid, picturesque style, that will
impress the facts on the memory, so that to forget
them shall be impossible.

Can you do it ? I might safely offer a prize of
any amount to the person who can solve this
puzzle and write this story as I have described.
But hard, even impossible, as it would be for you
to do this, even if you perfectly knew the history
of the last thirteen centuries, how infinitely im-
possible would it be if that history lay in the
unknown and inscrutable future, instead of in the
past and present! If no eye had seen, nor ear
heard it ; if it was an untraversed continent, an
unseen world, a matter for the evolution of ages
yet to come — who then could tell the story at all,
much less in brief?

Now this is precisely what the prophet Daniel,
by inspiration of the omniscient and eternal God,
has done. He told the whole story of the Papacy
twenty-five centuries ago. He omitted none of
the points I have enumerated, and yet the
prophecy only occupies seventeen verses of a
chapter which can be read slowly and impres-
sively in less than five minutes. This is because
it is written in the only language in which it is

D

34 Romanism and the Reformation.

possible thus to compress multum in parvo^ the
ancient language of hieroglyphics. God revealed
the future to Daniel by a vision in which he saw,
not the events, but living, moving, speaking
hieroglyphics of the events. These Daniel simply
describes, and his description of them constitutes
the prophecy written in the seventh chapter of
his book. Our consideration of this remarkable
prediction we must however postpone for the
present, as we have already claimed your atten-
tion long enough for one lecture.

LECTURE II.

THE DANIEL FO REVIEW OF ROMANISM,

Second Part.

ALLOW me to commence this lecture by
reading to you Daniel's description of the
divinely designed hieroglyph by which the history
of Rome was prefigured. He has previously
described the hieroglyphics of the Babylonian,
Persian, and Grecian empires, and then he says :

After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a
fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ;
and it had great iron teeth : it devoured and brake in
pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it : and it
was diverse from all the beasts that were before it ; and it
had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there
came up among them another little horn, before whom there
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots : and,
behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a
mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were
cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment
was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure
wool : His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels
as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from
before Him : thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and

35

36 Romanism and the Reformation.

ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him : the
judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld
then because of the voice of the great words which the horn
spake : I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body
destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning
the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away :
yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. . .
I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him
the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the
interpretation of the things. These great beasts, which are
four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But
the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and
possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then
I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was
diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth
were of iron, and his nails of brass ; which devoured, brake
in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet ; and of
the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which
came up, and before whom three fell ; even of that horn that
had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose
look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the
same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against
them ; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was
given to the saints of the Most High ; and the time came
that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The
fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which
shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the
whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that
shall arise : and another shall rise after them ; and he shall
be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
And he shall speak great words against the Most High,
and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think
to change times and laws : and they shall be given into his

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, 3 7

hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time.
But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his
dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And
the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the king-
dom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people
of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an ever-
lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey
Him.

In these verses you have the entire story of the
Papacy, and what is more, you have its future as
well as its past, the judgment of God as to its
moral character and deserts.

And how vivid the colouring, how graphic the
picture ! I wish I could paint, or, better still, dis-
play in action before your eyes, such a dreadful
and terrible and exceedingly strong wild beast,
with its brazen claws and iron teeth, and ravening,
ferocious nature, with its ten horns and its strange,
head-like " little horn,*' able to see and speak and
blaspheme the Almighty, so as at last to bring
down destruction on the beast itself! I wish I
could let you watch it, — rending and tearing its
enemies, breaking their bones in pieces, devouring
their flesh, and in wanton, fierce ferocity stamping
on and trampling with its brazen-clawed feet
what it cannot consume ! If you had learned the
A B C of the language of hieroglyphics you would
at once recognise that such creatures as this are

38 Romanism and the Reformation.

figures of godless empires^ kingdoms which are
brutal in their ignorance of God, in their absence
of self-control, in their bestial instincts ; which
love bloodshed and are reckless of human agony,
selfish, terrible, cruel, mighty. They represent and
recall proud military heroes, like Julius Caesar,
who trample down all that oppose them; cruel
despots, who oppress their fellows ; reckless con-
querors like Tamerlane and Napoleon, to whom
the slaughter of millions of mankind was a matter
of no moment This is the generic signification
of all such hieroglyphs.

But we are not left to guess the meaning and
application of this particular monster. The sym-
bol has a Divine interpretation. " Tlu fourth beastl^
we read, " shall be tlie fourth kingdom upon earths
That, beyond all question, was Rome, as all his-
torians agree — the fourth and last of the great
universal empires of antiquity. The monster re-
presents Rome, her whole existence as a supreme
or ruling power, after the fall of the Greek or
Macedonian beast before her attacks (b.c. 197). It
represents therefore the history of Rome for ovet
2,000 years in the past, and on into a time still
future; for, be it well noted, this beast ravages
and rules, and his characteristic little horn blas-
phemes and boasts, right up to the point when

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 39

empires like to wild beasts come to an end^ and
" the Son of man and the saints of the Most High
take the kingdom apd possess it for ever."

It is important that we should clearly grasp one
great historical fact; Le, the rule of Rome has
never, since it first commenced, ceased to exist,
save once, for a very brief period during the
Gothic invasions. It has citanged in c/taracter, as
we have seen, but it has continued. Rome ruled
the known world at the first advent of Christ,
and still rules hundreds of millions of mankind,
and will continue so to do right up till the
second advent of Christ So this prophecy
teaches ; for not until the Son of man takes the
dominion of the earth, and establishes a kingdom
that shall never pass away, is the monster repre-
senting Roman rule destroyed. The rule of Rome,
we repeat, has never ceased. It was a secular
pagan power for five or six centuries ; it has been
an ecclesiastical and apostate Christian power ever
since, that is to say, for twelve or thirteen cen-
turies. There lay a brief period between these
two main stages, during which professing Christian
emperors ruled from Rome, followed by an in-
terval when, for a time, it seemed as if the great
city had received a fatal blow from her Gothic
captors. It seemed so ; but it was not so, for the

40 Romanism and the Reformaiion.

I Ml , B^^^M ^

word of God cannot be broken. The rule of
Rome revived in a new form, and was as real
under the popes of the thirteenth century as it
had been under the Caesars of the first. It was
as oppressive, cruel, and bloody under Innocent
III. as it had been under Nero and Domitian.
The reality was the same, though the forms had
changed. The Caesars did not persecute the wit-
nesses of Jesus more severely and bitterly than
did the popes ; Diocletian did not destroy the
saints or oppose the gospel more than did the
Inquisition of Papal days. Rome is one and the
same all through, both locally and morally. One
dreadful wild beast represents her, though the
symbol, like the history it prefigures, has two parts.
There was the undivided stage, and there has
been the tenfold stage. The one is Rome pagan,
the other Rome Papal ; the one is the old empire,
the other the modern pontificate; the one is the
empire of the Caesars, the other is the Roman
Papacy.

I speak broadly, omitting all detail for the
present. We shall find more of that when we
come by-and-by to John's later foreview. Daniel's
was a distant view in the days of Belshazzar, too
distant altogether for detail. No artist paints the
sheep on the hillside if the hill be fifty miles off;

Tfie Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 4 1

he may sketch its bold outline, but he omits
minor detail. So Daniel's distant foreview, dating
from 2,500 years ago, shows the two great sections
of Roman history — the undivided military empire,
followed by the commonwealth of Papal Christen-
dom, the latter as truly Latin in character as the
former ; and he shows the end of Rome at the
second advent of Christ. But he refrains from
encumbering his striking sketch with confusing
political details. He does not fail however to
delineate fully the moral and religious features of
the power ruling from Rome during the second
half of the story, the power symbolized by the
proud, intelligent, blasphemous, head-like " little
horn " of the Roman beast. To this he devotes,
on the contrary, the greater part of the prophecy ;
and I must ask you now carefully to note the
various points that prove this horn to be a mar-
vellous prophetic symbol or hieroglyph of the
Roman papacy, fitting it as one of Chubb's keys
fits the lock for which it is made, perfectly and in
every part, while it refuses absolutely to adapt
itself to any other.

The main points in the nature, character, and
actings of this " little horn," which we must note
in order to discover the power intended, are
these :

42 Romanism and the Reformation,

1. Its place : within the body of the fourth
empire.

2. The period of its origin : soon after the
division of the Roman territory into ten kingdoms.

3. Its nature: different from the other king-
doms, though in some respects like them. It was
a horn, but with eyes and mouth. It would be a
kingdom like the rest, a monarchy ; but its kings
would be overseers or bishops and prophets.

4. Its moral cliaracter: boastful and blasphe-
mous ; great words spoken against the Most High.

5. Its lawlessness : it would claim authority over
times and laws.

6. Its opposition to the saints : it would be a per-
secuting power, and that for so long a period that
it would wear out the saints of the Most High,
who would be given into its hand for a time.

7. Its duration: "time, times and a half," or
1,260 years.

8. Its doom : it would suffer the loss of its
dominion before it was itself destroyed. " They
shall take away its dominion, to consume and
destroy it to the end."

Here are eight distinct and perfectly tangible
features. If they all meet in one great reality,
if we find them all characterizing one and the

— :-* — ';-:

Ttu Danul Foreview of Romanism. 43

same power, can we question that that is the
power intended ? They do all meet in the Roman
Papacy, whose history I have just briefly recalled,
and we are therefore bold to say it is the great
and evil reality predicted, A few words on each
of these points, to convince you that this is the
case.

1. Its place. No one can question that the
Papacy is a Roman^ as distinguished from a Greek
or an oriental, power. Its seat is the seven-hilled
city ; its tongue is the Latin language of Csesar
and of Pliny and of Tacitus ; its Church is the
Church of Rome^ and is the only Church that is
or ever has been named from a city. Others have
been named from countries, or from men ; the
Papal Church alone bears the name of a city,
and that city is Rome. The Papacy fulfils the
first condition therefore.

2. Its time. We have shown that the last
Bishop of Rome and the first pope was Boniface
III., A.D. 607. Now the western empire of
Rome came to an end with the fall of Romulus
Augustulus, A.D. 476; that is, 130 years earlier.
During that time the ten kingdoms were forming
in the body of the old empire, and during that
time the simple pastor of the Church was trans-
formed into a pope. The little horn grew up

44 Romanism and the Reformation.

among the ten. The Papacy developed syn-
chronously with the Gothic kingdoms.

3. Its nature. The power symbolized by the
little horn is of course a kittgdom, like all the
other ten; but it is not merely this. It is "diverse,"
or different, from all the other ruling dynasties
with which it is associated. It is a horn of the
wild beast, but it has human eyes and a human
voice, denoting its pretensions to be a seer, or
prophet, and a teacher. It takes the oversight of
all the ten, it is an overseer or bishop, and it has
" a mouth speaking great things." Its paramount
influence depends, not on its mere material power,
for it is small as a kingdom, a " little horn," but on
its religious pretensions. Does not this exactly
portray the Papacy } Was it not diverse or dif-
ferent from all the Gothic kingdoms amid which
it existed ? Was it a mere kingdom ? Nay, but
a spiritual reign over the hearts and minds as
well as the bodies of men — a reign established
by means, not of material weapons, but of spiritual
pretensions. It was founded not on force, but on
falsehood and fraud, and the superstitious fears of
the half-civilized and ignorant Gothic kingdoms.

The popedom has always been eager to pro-
claim its own diversity from all other kingdoms.
It claims "a princedom more perfect than every

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 45

human princedom/' surpassing them " as far as the
light of the sun exceeds that of the moon." It
arrogates to itself a character as superior to secu-
lar kingdoms as man to the irrational beasts. Its
laws are made not with the best human wisdom ;
but auctoritate, scientid, ac plenitudine, with the
fulness of Divine knowledge and the fulness of
apostolic power. Is not the Papacy sufficiently
diverse from all the rest of the kingdoms of
western Europe to identify it as the little horn ?
What other ruling monarch of Christendom ever
pretended to apostolic authority, or ruled men in
the name of God ? Does the pope dress in royal
robes } Nay, but in priestly garments. Does he
wear a crown } Nay, but a triple tiara, to show
that he reigns in heaven, earth, and hell! Does
he wield a sceptre ? Nay, but a crosier or crook,
to show that he is the good shepherd of the
Church. Do his subjects kiss his hand } Nay,
but his toe ! Verily this power is " diverse " from
the rest, both in great things and little. It is
small in size, gigantic in its pretensions. It is,
or was for centuries, one among many temporal
kingdoms in Europe. It is the only one which
claims a spiritual authority and universal
dominion.
4. Its moral character. The salient feature

46 Romanism and tJu Reformation.

here is the "mouth speaking very great things."
Great words spoken against the Most High, and
"a look more stout than his fellows." Audacious
tride and bold blasphemy must characterize the
power that fulfils this point of the symbol.

We ask then, Has the Papacy exhibited this
mark also ? Time would fail me to quote to you
verbatim its great words, its boastful self-glorifi-
cations, and its outrageous blasphemies against
God ! You will find pages of them quoted in my
work on "The Approaching End of the Age,"
and volumes filled with them exist, for Papal
documents consist of little else. The Papal
claims are so grotesque in their pride and self-
exaltation, that they almost produce a sense of the
comic, and that feeling of pitying contempt with
which one would watch a frog trying to swell
itself to the size of an ox! I must however
mention some of the claims contained in these
" great words," which will show you the nature of
Papal blasphemies. It is claimed, for instance,
that "no laws made contrary to the canons and
decrees of Roman prelates have any force," that
"the tribunals of all kings are subject to the
priests," that "no man may act against the dis-
cipline of the Roman Church," that "the Papal
decrees or decretal epistles are to be numbered

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 47

among the canonical Scriptures,'* and not only so,
but that the Scriptures themselves are to be re-
ceived only "because a judgment of holy Pope
Innocent was published for receiving them." It is
claimed that "emperors ought to obeyy and not
rule over pontiffs " ; that even an awfully wicked
pope, who is a " slave of hell," may not be rebuked
by mortal man, because "he is himself to judge
all men and be judged by none," and "since he
was styled God by the pious prince Constantine,
// is manifest tJiat God cannot be judged by man /"
They claim that no laws, not even their own
canon laws, can bind the popes ; but that just as
Christ, being maker of all laws and ordinances,
could violate the law of the sabbath, because He
was Lord also of the sabbath, so popes can dis-
pense with any law, to show they are above all law !
It is claimed that the chair of St. Peter, the see
of Rome, is '^made the Iiead of the world'' ) that
it is not to be subject to any man, ^^ since by
t/ie Divine mouth it is exalted above all" In the
canon laws the Roman pontiff is described as
" our Lord God the pope," and said to be " neither
God nor man, but both." But the climax of
assumption, the keystone of the arch of Papal
pretension, is probably to be found in the cele-
brated "extravagant" of Boniface VIII., the

48 Romanism and the Reformation,

Unam Sa7ictam, which runs thus : " All the faith-
ful of Christ by necessity of salvation are subject
to the Roman pontiff, who judges all men, but is
judged by no one." " This authority is not human,
but rather Divine. . . . Therefore we declare,
assert, define, and pronounce, that to be siibject to
the Roman pontiff is to every human creature alto-
gether necessary for salvation^*

All these claims were incessantly and univer-
sally urged all down the centuries by the popes of
Rome, and are still advanced, as boldly as ever, in
official decretals, bulls, extravagants, decisions of
canonists, sentences of judges, books, catechisms,
sermons, and treatises of all kinds. There is no
mistaking what they amount to. The pope claims
Divine inspiration, his words are to be received
as the words of God ; no laws can bind him, he is
supreme over all ; the very Scriptures derive their
authority from him ; implicit obedience to him is
the only way of salvation. He is exalted above
all, supreme over all nations, kings, emperors,
princes, bishops, archbishops. Churches, over all
the world ; he is as God on earth, and as such to
be worshipped and obeyed. Let me quote you
from his own lips some of the great words of the
little horn. The following language affords a mere
sample of thousands of such Papal blasphemies.

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 49

"The greatness of priesthood began in Melchisedek, was
solemnized in Aaron, continued in the children of Aaron,
perfected in Christ, represented in Peter, exalted in the
universal jurisdiction, and manifested in the pope. So that
through this pre-eminence of my priesthood, having all
things subject to me, it may seem well verified in me, that
was spoken of Christ, ' Thou hast subdued all things under
His feet, sheep and oxen, and all cattle of the field, the birds
of heaven, and fish of the sea,' etc. : where it is to be noted
that by oxen, Jews, and heretics, by cattle of the field,
pagans be signified ; ... by sheep and all cattle are
meant all Christian men, both great and less, whether they
be emperors, princes, prelates, or others ; by birds of the
air you may understand angels and potentates of heaven,
who be all subject to me, in that I am greater than the
angels, and that in four things, as afore declared, and have
power to bind and loose in heaven, and to give heaven to
them that fight in my wars ; lastly, by the fishes of the sea,
are signified the souls departed, in pain or in purgatory.

"All the earth is my diocese, and I am the ordinary of
all men, having the authority of the King of all kings upon
subjects. I am all in all and above all, so that God Him-
self and I, the vicar of God, have but one consistory, and I
am able to do almost all that God can do. In all things
that I list, my will is to stand for reason ; for I am able
by the law to dispense above the law, and of wrong to
make justice in correcting laws and changing them. . . .
Wherefore if those things that I do be said not to be done
of man, but of God, what can you make me but God?
Again, if prelates of the Church be called and counted of
Constantine for gods, I then, being above all prelates, seem
by this reason to be above all gods. Wherefore no marvel
if it be in my power to change times and times, to alter and
abrogate laws, to dispense with all things, yea, with the pre-

E

50 Romanism and tJie Reformation,

cepts of Christ ; for where Christ biddeth Peter put up his
sword, and admonishes His disciples not to use any outward
force in revenging themselves, do not I, Pope Nicholas,
writing to the bishops of France, exhort them to draw out
their material swords? And whereas Christ was present
Himself at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, do not I, Pope
Martin, in my distinction, inhibit the spiritual clergy to be
present at marriage feasts, and also to marry? Moreover
where Christ biddeth us lend without hope of gain, do not I,
Pope Martin,'give dispensation for the same ? What should
I speak of murder, making it to be no murder or homicide
to slay them that be exconmiunicated ? Likewise against
the law of nature, item against the apostles, also against the
canons of the apostles, I can and do dispense ; for where
they in their canon command a priest for fornication to be
deposed, I, through the authority of Sylvester, do alter the
rigour of that constitution, considering the minds and
bodies also of men to be weaker than they were then.

"After that I have now sufficiently declared my power in
earth, in heaven, in purgatory, how great it is, and what is
the fulness thereof in binding, loosing, commanding, permit-
ting, electing, confirming, disposing, dispensing, doing, and
undoing, etc., I will speak now a little of my riches and of
my great possessions, that every man may see by my wealth,
and abundance of all things, rents, tithes, tributes, my silks,
my purple mitres, crowns, gold, silver, pearls and gems,
lands and lordships. For to me pertaineth first the imperial
city of Rome, the palace of Latcran ; the kingdom of Sicily
is propef to me ; Apulia and Capua be mine. Also the
kingdom of England and Ireland, be they not, or ought they
not to be, tributaries to me ? To these I adjoin also, besides
other provinces and countries, both in the Occident and
orient, from the north to the south, these dominions by
name. [Here follows a long list.] What should I speak here

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 5 1

of my daily revenues, of my Rrstfruits, annats, palls, indul-
gences, bulls, confessionals, indults and rescripts, testa-
ments, dispensations, privileges, elections, prebends, religious
houses, and such like, which come to no small mass of
money? . • • Whereby what vantage cometh to my
coffers it may partly be conjectured. . . . But what
should I speak of Germany, when the whole world is my
diocese, as my canonists do say, and all men are bound to
believe ; except they will imagine (as the Manichees do) two
beginnings, which is false and heretical ? For Moses saith.
In the beginning God made heaven and earth ; and not, In
the beginnings. Wherefore, as I began, so I conclude, com-
manding, declaring, and pronouncing, to stand upon neces-
sity of salvation, for every human creature to be subject to
me" (Fox : "Acts and Monuments," vol. iv., p. 145).

It is futile to allege that the Papacy does not
make these claims and speak these great words
against God, but in His name and as His repre«
sentative. The answer is patent. This prophecy
foretelb what the power predicted would do^ not
what it would profess to do. Does the Papacy give
God the glory, or does it glorify itself.^ Facts
cannot be set aside by false pretences. Satan
disguises himself as an angel of light. The head
of a Christian Church would not overtly array
himself against Christ ; if he does so, it will be
under semblance of serving Him.^

* "Let us suppose a rebel in some distant province to
forge the royal seal and handwriting, and pretend to act in
the name of the sovereign. He then claims to himself entire

52 Romanism and t/ie Reformation.

The Papacy has abundantly branded on her
own brow this particular of the prophecy — the
boastful, blasphemous claim to Divine authority
and absolute dominion. It has assumed Divine
attributes, and even the very name of God, and on
the strength of that name claimed to be above all
human judgment.

5. Lawlessness was the next feature we noted
in the little horn. We have given above some
specimens of the Papal claim to set aside all
laws Divine and human. "The pope has also
annulled the only surviving law of paradise, con-
firmed by the words of Christ. The Lord
ordained, 'What God hath joined together, let

and unreserved allegiance. He abrogates whatever laws
he pleases, and enacts contrary ones in their room. He
enforces his own statutes by the severest punishments against
those who still adhere to the old laws, of the kingdom. He
clothes himself with the robes of state, applies to himself the
royal titles, claims immunity from the laws, even of his own
enacting ; and pretends that all the statutes derive their sole
force from his sanction, and must borrow their meaning from
his interpretations. Last of all, he banishes, strips of their
goods, imprisons, and puts to death all those subjects
who abide by the laws of the king and reject his usurpa-
tion. Surely, in this case, the pretence of governing in
the monarch's name does not excuse, but aggravates the
rebellion. It lessens greatly, it is true, the guilt of the
deceived subjects, but increases, in the same proportion,
the crime of their deceiver ** (Birks ; "The First Two
Visions of Daniel," p. 221).

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 53

no man put asunder.* The pope ordains, * We
decide also that, according to the sacred canons,
the marriages contracted by priests and deacons
be dissolved, and the parties brought to do
penance.' The Papacy has further annulled the
second commandment, given on the mount by the
lips of God — in theory, by the childish and false
distinction between heathen idols and Christian
images; and in practice, by hiding it from the
people, and blotting it out from the catechisms
of general instruction. The pope has further an-
nulled the main laws of the gospel. He forbids
the cup to the laity, although the Lord Himself
has commanded, * Drink ye all of it.' He forbids
the people of Christ, in general, to use the word of
God in their own tongue ; though Christ Himself
has charged them, 'Search the Scriptures.* He
forbids the laity to reason or converse on the
doctrines of the gospel ; though St Peter has
commanded them, * Be ye ready to give a reason
of the hope that is in you.' The pope, finally,
sanctions the invocation of saints and angels :
though St. Paul has warned us, * Let no man
beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and worshipping of angels * ; though
St John has renewed the charge to the disciples
of Christ, 'Little children keep yourselves from

54 Romanism and the Reformation.

idols*; and an angel from heaven renews the
caution, in his words to the same holy apostle,
* See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant ;
worship God." ^

6. Systematic and long continued persecution of
iJie saints is one of the most marked features of the
little horn of the prophecy. It is predicted that
he should " wear out the saints of the Most High."
His first great characteristic is blasphemous op-
position to God ; his next salient feature is oppres-
sive cruelty towards men : and just as Christ
allowed His people to suffer ten persecutions
under the pagan emperors of Rome, so he
allowed His faithful witnesses to be worn out by
the cruelties of Papal Rome. "They shall be given
into his hand." The Church has to tread in the
footsteps of Christ Himself, who resisted unto
blood striving against sin, and was put to death
by the power of Rome. She is called to the
fellowship of His sufferings; and while tliey secured
the salvation of our race, hers have not been un-
fruitful, for the blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the Church.

But we must compare the facts of history with
the prediction of prophecy on this point, to see
how deeply this mark is engraved on the Papacy

* BiRKS : " First Two Visions of Daniel," pp. 258, 259.

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 55

as upon no other power that has ever existed in
the earth. That the Church of Rome and her
Papal head have persecuted largely and long, none
can pretend to deny ; in fact, so far from denying
it, Rome glories in it, and regards it as one of her
great merits. Other nations have now abandoned
as unsound "the bloody tenet of persecution."
Rome retains it still, approves it theoretically, and
would carry it out as vigorously as ever practi-
cally, if she could. Other powers have persecuted
to a small extent and occasionally, in the past, but
never systematically and by law throughout ages.
All but Rome now hold religious liberty to be an
inherent right of man. Rome has, on the other
hand, persecuted on principle^ and steadily from the
seventh century right on to the French Revolu-
tion and to some extent almost to the present
time. She does so still in the secret recesses of
her nunneries and monasteries, under the name of
penance. Why else does she require shops for tJu
sale of instruments of bodily torture^ such as exist
this day in London ?

Rome's contention is, not that she does not
persecute, but only that she does not persecute
saints. She punishes heretics — a very different
thing. The first would be wicked, the last she
esteems laudable. In the Rhemish New Testa-

56 Romanism and the Reformation.

ment there is a note on the words " drunken with
the blood of saints," which runs as follows : " Pro-
testants foolishly expound this of Rome, because
heretics are there put to death. But tluir blood is
not called tJu blood of saints^ any more than the
blood of thieves or man-killers, or other male-
factors ; and for the shedding of it no common-
wealth shall give account." This is clear. Rome
approves the murder of "heretics," and fully
admits that she practises her principles.

The question therefore becomes this, Are those
whom Rome calls "heretics" the same as those
whom Daniel calls " saints " ? If so, the identifica-
tion of the Papacy is as complete in this respect as
in all the previous points. In order to arrive at an
answer to this question, let us take Rome's own
definition of a heretic. The following statements
are from authorized documents, laws, and decrees
of the Papacy, dating from the time of Pope
Pelagius in the sixth century, twelve hundred
years ago. " Schism is an evil. Whoever is
separated from the apostolic see is doubtless in
schism. Do then what we often exhort. Take
pains that they who presume to commit this sin
be brought into custody. . . . Do not hesitate
to compress men of this kind, and if he despise
this, let him be crushed by the public powers."

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, 5 7

This, it will be observed, makes a want of perfect
submission to the pope, even though no false
doctrine or evil practice be alleged, a ground
for persecution. Pope Damasus, whose election
to the pontificate was secured by a hundred and
thirty-seven murders, authorizes persecution of
those who speak against any of the holy canons,
and adds, '' It is permitted neither to think nor to
speak differently from the Roman Church." This
is one of the canons which it is blasphemy to
violate; and he who ventures to differ, even in
thought, on any point whatever from the Roman
Church is therefore a heretic Hundreds of deci-
sions on detailed examples of heresy are all
summed up in this one. The Roman decrees
everywhere supply similar definitions. Whatever
is short of absolute, unconditional surrender of all
freedom of act or word, or even of thought and
conscience, is heresy. Every evangelical Christian
in the world is therefore, according to Romanist
canons, a heretic, and as such liable to " punish-
ment" And moreover Rome frankly admits that
it is only where she cannot in the nature of things
carry out her ecclesiastical discipline that she is
justified in refraining from persecution. The
Papacy teaches all her adherents that it is a
sacred duty to exterminate heresy. From age to

58 Romanism and the Reformation.

age it has sought to crush out all opposition to its
own dogmas and corruptions, and Papal edicts for
persecution are innumerable. The fourth Lateran
Council issued a canon on the subject, which sub«
sequently became an awful instrument of cruelty.

For long ages it was held and taught universally
that whoever fell fighting against heretics had
merited heaven. Urban 11. issued a decree, acted
on, alas ! to this day in Ireland, that the murder
of heretics was excusable. "We do not count
them murderers who, burning with the zeal of
their Catholic mother against the excommunicate,
may happen to have slain some of them." If not
absolutely murdered, heretics might be ill treated
ad libittim^ according to an ordinance of Gregory
IX., who writes to the Archbishop of Milan : " Let
those understand themselves to be absolved the
debt of fidelity, homage, and all manner of service,
who were bound by any compact, however firmly
ratified, to those who have fallen into heresy."
Systematic persecution and extermination of
heretics among their subjects was constantly en-
joined on kings and emperors ; such were required
solemnly to swear on their coronation that they
would, according to their power, faithfully render
their service to the pope. If they neglected to do
it the sovereign pontiff would declare the vassals

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 59

free and give their realms to rigid Papists who
would more effectually persecute. If monarchs
became heretics themselves, they were to be de-
posed and anathematized. Thus Pius V. " issued
a bull for the damnation and excommunication
of Queen Elizabeth and her adherents," cutting
her off from "the unity of the body of Christ,"
depriving her of her crown and kingdom, and pro-
nouncing a curse on her and on all who continued
to obey her.

The laws of the Papacy on this subject increase
in malignity from the beginning down to modern
times. Bellarmine argues for the necessity of
burning heretics, a practice which Luther had
asserted to be contrary to the Spirit of God. He
says : " Experience teaches that there is no other
remedy; for the Church has proceeded by slow
steps, and tried all remedies. First, she only ex-
communicated. Then she added a fine of money,
and afterwards exile. Lastly, she was compelled
to come to the punishment of death. For heretics
despise excommunication, and say that those
lightnings are cold. If you threaten a fine of
money, they neither fear God nor regard men,
knowing that fools will not be wanting to believe
in them, and by whom they may be sustained. If
you shut them in prison, or send them into exile.

6o Romanism and the Reformation.

they corrupt those near to them with their words,
and those at a distance with their books. There-
fore the only remedy is, to send them betimes into
their own place."

" Under these bloody maxims those persecutions
were carried on, from the eleventh and twelfth
centuries almost to the present day, which stand
out on the page of history. After a signal of
open martyrdom had been given in the canons
of Orleans, there followed the extirpation of the
Albigenses under the form of a crusade, the estab-
lishment of the Inquisition, the cruel attempts to
extinguish the Waldenses, the martyrdom of the
Lollards, the cruel wars to exterminate the Bo-
hemians, the burning of Huss and Jerome, and
multitudes of other confessors, before the Refor-
mation ; and afterwards the ferocious cruelties
practised in the Netherlands, the martyrdoms of
Queen Mary's reign, the extinction, by fire and
sword, of the Reformation in Spain and Italy, by
fraud and open persecution in Poland, the mas-
sacre of Bartholomew, the persecutions of the
Huguenots by the League, the extirpation of the
Vaudois, and all the cruelties and perjuries con-
nected with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
These are the more open and conspicuous facts
which explain the prophecy, besides the slow and

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 6 1

secret murders of the holy tribunal of the Inqui-
sition." 1

A Romanist writer^ who deplored the persecu-
ting policy of his Church — Professor Rossetti —
writes : " It makes the heart of the true Christian
bleed to think of this fatal error of the Latin
Churchy which by persecuting others laid the
foundation of her own irreparable ruin. That the
opinions held by these so-called heretics were
most injurious to the Church of Rome cannot
be denied, but the means taken to destroy them
were, of all others, the most likely to strengthen
them, and render them more deeply rooted.
Daniel and St John foretold that Satan's dele-
gate would use horrid cruelties, and inundate
Babylon with the blood of Christ's martyrs ; and
the pope, to prove that he was not that delegate,
did use horrid cruelties, and caused Rome to over-
flow with the purest of Christian blood ! "

So Sismondi, the historian, writes: "To maintain
unity of belief the Church had recourse to the
expedient of burning all those who separated
themselves from her; but altliough for two hundred
years the fires were never quenclud, still every day
saw Romanists abjuring tlie faith of their fathers

> BiRKS : " First Two Visions of Daniel,'' pp. 248, 249.

62 Romanism and the Reformation.

and embracing the religion which ofteji guided t/iem
totlie stake. In vain Gregory IX., in A.D. 123 1, put
to death every heretic whom he found concealed
in Rome. His own letters show that the heretics
only increased in numbers."

It must never be forgotten that all Rome's
ordinances against heresy, all its statutes of per-
secution, remain in its canon law unabrogated,
unchanged, and — as the Papacy is infallible in its
own esteem — unchangeable, ** irreformable," Its
present disuse of persecution practically is the
result of the heavy judgments which have, since
the Reformation, and especially since the French
Revolution, overtaken it It has now no army
and no Inquisition of its own, nor is any single
kingdom in Europe willing any longer to act as its
executioner. It lacks the power, — it utterly lacks
the power — to persecute directly or indirectly. It
can only stir up sedition and revolt in Protestant
countries, and thus endeavour to injure and weaken
Protestant powers, as it is doing to-day in Ireland
and in the United States. It is too weak politi-
cally to defy modern society by reintroducing
mediaeval tortures, massacres, religious crusades,
and the auto de fL But it is as willing as ever,
and awaits the opportunity only. As a drunkard
may retain his vicious appetite when he has no

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 63

longer the means of gratifying it, so Rome — long
drunken with the blood of saints — is restrained
from further maddening and debasing draughts
of her dreadful beverage by nothing but inability
to procure them. The Papacy, by justifying as
righteous all the horrible persecutions of the past,
attests her readiness to renew them whenever the
opportunity may serve.

As I shall have to recur to this subject when
treating of St John's foreview of Romanism, I will
add nothing further on this point. I have said
enough to show that this sixth mark of the little
horn attaches most distinctly to the Papacy, and
indicates it alone among all the powers that have
ever held sway on the Roman earth. It has
martyred by millions the saints of God, the best
and holiest of men. Its persecuting edicts range
over the entire period of its existence ; the present
pope has endorsed them by his approval of the
syllabus of Pius IX., and he threw over them the
mantle of infallibility.

7. Its duration, A certain definite period is
assigned to the rule of the little horn. That
period is expressed in symbolic language, har-
monious with the symbolic or hieroglyphic char-
acter of the 'whole prophecy. It is " time, times
and a half," or " 1,260 days." This is a miniature

64 Romanism and tfu Reformation.

symbol of the true period, just as the beast is a
miniature symbol of the empire, and the little horn
of the Papacy of Rome. Scripture elsewhere gives
us the scale on which it is to be enlarged, " a year
for a day." It means therefore 1,260 years. The
political supremacy and the persecuting power of
the see of Rome were to last for this period and
no longer. We have shown you that the popedom
dates from the begimiing of the seventh century.
Twelve and half centuries added brings us to the
end of the nineteenth century — in other words, to
the days we live in, and in which Rome has ceased
to be governed by its popes and has become the
capital of the kings of Italy. I have no time to
expound this chronological point fully to you this
evening. If you wish to study it, you will find it
carefully and exactly treated in my recent work,
" Light for the Last Days." But it leads me to
the final point in this identification.

8. Tlu doom of tlu predicted power What is the
end of this symbolic little horn.^ "They shall take
away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it
unto the end." "The beast was slain, and his
body destroyed and given to the burning flame."
This last clause of the prophecy is of course not
yet fully accomplished, as it is the coming of the
Son of man in the clouds of heaven that brings

TJte Daniel Foreview of Rovtajiisuu 05

about the final consummation {i\ 13). Specula-
tions about the future we leave to futurists, and
therefore it might at first sight seem as if we ought
to say nothing on this point of the prophecy. But
it is not so. This doom consists clearly of two
parts: first, the consuming and destroying to the
end; and then the end itself, symbolized by the
slaughter of the beast, the committal of his body
to the burning flame. Now the first part of this
doom is fulfilling, and has been fulfilling ever since
the Reformation, and especially ever since the
French Revolution ; though the second part is still
future. We ask. Has there not been going on
for the last few centuries a process by which the
once mighty power of the Papacy has been sen-
sibly consumed, — a weakening process, analogous
to consumption in the human frame, — a wasting
decay tending to extinction }

It must be borne in mind that this prophecy
of Daniel takes up the political aspect of the great
antichrist, not his religious character. It views
him as a monarch of the Roman world, not as a
bishop of the Christian Church. We come to that
aspect of his career presently, when we take up
Paul's foreview. Here it is one horn among ten,
one kingdom among ten Latin kingdoms, though
in some senses ruling over them all. The question

F

66 Romanism and the Reformation.

is, Has there not been such a decay and diminution
of Papal sovereignty, such a wasting and weakening
of Papal power, such a loss of revenue, influence,
and territory, as may be fairly said to fulfil this
prediction ?

Now I mentioned some facts at the beginning
of this lecture which indicate a very considerable
growth of Papal influence in England during the
last fifty years. Many so fix their gaze on these
facts as to get an impression that Romanism is
gaining ground in the world generally. This is
very far from being the case, as a glance at the
comparative positions of the Papacy in the thir-
teenth century and the two following ones, with its
position now in the nineteenth, will show. Tlun
Rome actually exercised the "dominion" which
she can now only claim. Tlien^ with the consent of
his barons, the king of England agreed to hold
his kingdom as the pope's feudatory, and to pay
him annually one hundred thousand marks as
an acknowledgment. Can you imagine Queen
Victoria and the lords and commons of England
agreeing to that sort of thing now.^ Then the
great and valiant emperor of Germany stood for
three winter days and nights barefoot in the
courtyard of "His Holiness," waiting for the honour
of an audience, in which he might beg the pope's

The Daniel Fareview of Romanism. 67

pardon for having acted as an independent
monarch ! Can you imagine the Kaiser Wilhelm,
of Berlin, doing that now? T/un wherever he
pleased the pope could suspend all the obser-
vances of religion, even to the burial of the dead
and the marriage of the living, in any country
with which he was offended. In what kingdom
could he do so now? Long after his absolute
dominion was gone, the pope had what were
called concordats with different nations, in which
it was agreed that, in return for the pope's spiritual
support, they would uphold him by their armies
and navies. All these have come to an end ; not
a nation in Europe lifted a finger to help him
when the last vestige of his temporal dominion
was violently taken away.

Direct political power he now has none, though
his position as head of the apostate Roman
Church gives him still immense indirect in-
fluence. The ten kings as such have entirely
shaken off his yoke, and he himself has no longer
any sovereign jurisdiction. His territories are
taken away, as well as his dominion. The wealth,
which was once enormous, is equally gone ; the
immense landed estates belonging to the convents
are, for the most part, confiscated to secular uses.
But the greatest fact of all in this connexion is

68 Romanism and the Reformation,

tlie number of those who have rejected his religious
pretensions. At the Lateran Council, in 1513,
after all the so called heretics had been silenced
by fire and sword, an orator, addressing the pope
said, "The whole body of Christendom is now
subject to one head, even to thee ; no one now
opposes, no one now objects." To-day there are
about a hnidred and fifty millions oj Protestants
in the world ! Has not the dominion of the
Papacy been consumed ? Can a few thousand
perverts in England weigh much against this stu-
pendous fact, that 150,000,000 of mankind are
no more subject to the Pope of Rome than to
the Lama of Tibet ? When we take into account
all the twelve centuries of Papal history, and
remember that this emancipation belongs to the
last three only^ we must admit that the predicted
consumption has made considerable progress. The
political dominion and the temporal possessions
are gone ; the Papacy is no longer a kingdom,
but only an ecclesiastical power, and, counting the
Greek Church, there are far more so-called Chris-
tians outside than inside the pale of the apostate
Latin Church, of which it is the head.

This feature of the prediction is then as clearly
applicable to Romanism as all the rest.

The Daniel Foreviezu of Romanism, 69

Let me inquire, can any one suggest any other
power in which all these marks, or the majority
of them, meet ? They are eight in number, and
definite in character. The prophecy lays its finger
on the place where we are to find the great enemy
— Rome; on the point of time in the course of
history at which we may expect to see him arise
— the division of the Roman territory into a com-
monwealth of kingdoms ; it specifies the Jiature
of the power — politico- ecclesiastical; its cJiaracter
— blasphemously self-exalting, lawless, and perse-
cuting ; it measures its duration — 1,260 years ; and
specifies its doom — to have its dominion gradu-
ally consumed and taken away, and then to be
suddenly destroyed for ever, because of its blas-
phemous assumptions, by the epiphany in glory
of the Son of man, introducing the kingdom of
God on earth.

The proof that the Papacy is the power intended
is strictly cumulative. If it answered to one of
these indications there would be a slight pre-
sumption against it ; if to several, a strong one ;
if to the majority, an overwhelming one ; while if
it answer to all, then the proof that it is the power
intended becomes to candid minds irresistible.
There is not a single clause in the prophecy
that cannot be proved to fit the Roman Papacy

70 Romanism and the Reformation.

exactly, except the last, which is not yet ful-
filled.

Rome, which in her pagan phase defiled and
destroyed the literal temple of God at Jerusalem,
in her Papal days defiled and destroyed the anti-
typical spiritual temple of God — the Christian
Church, Was it not worthy of God to warn that
Church beforehand of the coming of this dreadful
antichristian power, and to cheer her in all the
sufferings she would have to endure from its
tyranny by a knowledge of the issue of the great
and terrible drama? Was it not right that the
Roman power, pagan and Papal, should occupy
as paramount a place on the page of Scripture
as it has actually done on the page of history ?
The eighteen Christian centuries lay open before
the eye of the omniscient God, and no figure stood
out so prominently in all their long course as that
of the great antichrist. The pen of inspiration
sketched him in a few bold, masterly strokes ;
and there is no mistaking the portrait. In sub-
sequent lectures I shall have much to say to you
of the antichristian doctrines and practices of the
Papacy. To-night we have but studied the broad
outline drawn in the days of Belshazzar, which
forms a broad foundation for what must follow.

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism. 7 1

Notice, in conclusion, the evidence of inspira-
tion afforded by this wonderful prophecy. Could
Daniel foresee the things that were coming on the
earth? How should he happen to light on the
notion that there would be four universal empires,
and four only, and that after the fourth there
would arise — what the world had never seen before
— a commonwealth of ten kingdoms ? How could
he depict so strange and peculiar a power as the
Papacy ? How could he conceive it ? A little,
weak kingdom, yet controlling all kingdoms ! — a
human dynasty like any other, yet exalting itself
against God, and slaughtering His saints ! — a
power so wicked that heaven itself is moved for
its destruction, and the whole Roman earth ruined
on its account ! Supposing for a moment this
was a sketch from imagination : how comes it
that history has so wonderfully realized it ? The
prediction did not produce its own fulfilment, for
they who fulfilled it denied its application to them-
selves. It was not concocted to fit the events, for
the events did not begin for a thousand years after
it was published. The events were not arranged
by men to fit the prophecy, for they extend over
forty successive generations. There is no solution
of the problem save the true one : " Holy men
of old spake as they were moved by the Holy

72 Romanism and the Reformation,

Ghost"; "He revealeth the deep and secret
things : He knoweth what is in the darkness, and
the light dwelleth with Him."

Let me then solemnly charge you, reverence this
holy volume, heed its warnings, dread the judgments
it denounces, believe its promises, obey its pre-
cepts, study its sacred predictions ; for be ye very
sure it is the inspired word of the only living
and true God, who is, as Nebuchadnezzar declared
of old, "a God of gods, a Lord of kings, and a
revealer of secrets."

LECTURE III.

PAUL'S FO REVIEW OF ROMANISM,

X/'OU will remember that in my last lecture I
^ stated that the three foreviews of Romanism
presented in prophecy by Daniel, Paul, and John
respectively, have three distinctive characters.
Daniel gives mainly its political relations and its
broad moral features; Paul presents \\s ecclesiastical
relations and its religious features ; and John, by
the two compound hieroglyphs which he employs
and which we will consider in the next lecture,
exhibits the combination of the two aspects —
a politico-ecclesiastical power. He shows also
the changing relations between its contrasted yet
united elements during their long joint career,
and foretells the distinctive doom of each.

It must never be forgotten that the Roman
Papacy was for long ages an absolute, unlimited,
tyrannical monarchy, a worldly, secular governincjit.
It had its territorial dominions, its provinces, cities,
and towns ; it had its court, its nobles, its am-

73

74 Romanism and the Reformation,

bassadors, its army, its police, its legislature, its
jurisprudence, its laws, its advocates, its prisons,
its revenues, its taxes, its exchequer, its mint, its
arsenals, its forts, its foreign treaties, and its am-
bitious, selfish plans and policy, just as much as
any mere secular kingdom. But it was also some-
thing very different — it was the head of the Latin
Church ; it was a great ecclesiastical power ; it was
a religion as well as a government. As such it
had its dioceses and parishes, its spiritual hier-
archy of archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons,
its theological schools and colleges and professors.
Its abbots and deans, its councils and synods and
chapters, its monasteries and convents, its orders
of mendicant and other friars, its services and
sacraments, its creeds and confessions, its doc-
trines and discipline, and its penances and punish-
ments. Romanism is a comprehensive term,
including both these widely different organizations.
Both had their centre in the seven-hilled city, and
both regarded the Roman pontiff as head. Just
as in the old pagan times the Caesars themselves
had been both emperors and high priests of the
national religion, so the popes in mediaeval times
were fountain-heads of authority both in the
kingdom and in the Church. The ecclesiastical
position of the emperors was however rather a

P aid's Foreview of Romanism. 75

name than a reality ; while that of the popes was
most real. They were practically and effectively
head in both realms.

From his remote point 01 view, in the Baby-
lonian era, the statesman-prophet Daniel saw
mainly the political status of the Papacy. From
his five-hundred-years-later standpoint, under the
empire of Rome, the Christian Apostle Paul saw
and foretold most clearly the ecclesiastical character
of the coming antichrist ; and this evening we
are to consider this latter foreview of Romanism,
— we are to study it as a Church system. I must
ask you at your leisure to study very carefully
three or four passages in the writings of the
Apostle Paul, especially the third and fourth chap-
ters of his first letter to Timothy, and the second
chapter of his second Epistle to the Thessalonians.
You will see that PauUs foreview consists of two
parts : the first gives a general view of a great
apostasy, which would in due time arise in the
Church ; and the second a carefully drawn por-
trait of the power in which that apostasy would
be headed up. He had even previously predicted
the apostasy in his parting address to the elders
of the Church at Ephesus, recorded in Acts
XX. He had told them that there would arise
— not from the outside world, but from among

76 Romanism and the Reformation.

t/iemselves^ the pastors or bishops of the Church—
" grievous wolves, not sparing the flock." " Of
your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them ; there-
fore watch, and remember how I ceased not to
warn you." This was but a brief and passing
glance into the dark future ; but the momentary
glimpse suffices to show the outline of the evils
which time was to develop, and which Paul so
fully predicted later on. Ten pagan persecutions
lay before the Church ; but Paul does not predict
t/iem. Myriads of Christians were to do literally
what he did figuratively, to fight with wild beasts
in Roman amphitheatres; but the Apostle's pro-
phetic gaze rests not on any such spectacle. No !
a worse evil by far was to befall the Church : an
enemy was to arise in her midst, an apostasy was
to originate in her bosom, and eat like a cancer
into her vitals. Her own leaders were to mis-
lead her ; her very pastors, instead of feeding the
flock, would feed o?t it, and devour it like raven-
ing wolves. Perverse pastors, selfish, mercenary
bishops, would draw aiuay disciples after them-
selves, instead of drawing them to Christ as Paul
had done. He had coveted no man's silver or
gold, as he reminds them : but these apostate
bishops who should arise would be of a wholly

Paul's Foreview of Romamsm, 77

different character, robbing and oppressing the
Church as wolves the flock ; they would be the
direct opposites of the Good Shepherd who gave
His life for the sheep, and of the apostolic minis-
try which follows in His steps.

This first warning prediction of the Apostle
Paul was addressed, it is true, especially to the
elders or bishops (kiticKoiroC) of Ephesus ; but in
view of all that has happened since, it is easy to
see that the Ephesian bench of bishops were at
any rate representative, for the words are a pre-
diction of the ecclesiastical corruption that culmi-
nated in the Papacy. It strikes the key-note as
to the nature of the evil from which the Church
was destined to suffer so long and so widely.
The pagan persecutions, which threatened to ex-
terminate the early generations of Christians, were
harmless to the Church compared to the internal
corruption and cruel tyranny introduced by her
own bishops later on. Paul's foreview, from the
first, was of an ecclesiastical evil, one arising not
from the throne of the emperors but from the
bench of bishops, not outside but inside the
Church, You will feel the importance of this fact
later on in our course more than you can do now ;
I urge you to take special note of it.

In the picture of the coming apostasy which

78 Romanism and the Reformation,

Paul draws in i Timothy he adds many an ad-
ditional and dark detail. After giving practical
precepts for the organization and government of
the infant Church, and specifying the qualifica-
tions essential in its bishops and deacons (one of
which was that they should be married men), and
after summing up the faith of Christ in a brief
epitome of " the mystery of godliness," he writes —
and we may well believe he did so with a heavy
heart :

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in
the latter times some shall depart from the faiths
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to
marry, and commanding to abstain from meats,
which God hath created to be received with
thanksgiving of them which believe and know
the truth. For every creature of God is good,
and nothing to be refused, if it be received with
thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of
God and prayer." Here we have, not only a
prediction that there would be an " apostasy," or
falling away from the faith in the Christian Church,
but a description of its origin and character. Its
origin was to be satanic ; its doctrines were to be
doctrines of devils, or demons. It was to assume

PauVs Foreview of Romanism. 79

authority, and to lay down laws and prohibitions.
Prominent among these was to be the prohibition
of marriage ; that is, of the very relationship which
the inspired apostle had just previously enjoined
on bishops and deacons in the words, "A
bishop must be blameless, the husband of one
wife; . . . one that ruleth well his own house,
having his children in subjection with all gravity" ;
and in the words, "Let the deacons be the hus-
bands of one wife, ruling their children and their
own houses well." Marriage, although thus divinely
ordained, would be prohibited, and meats, though
created to be received with thanksgiving, would
be forbidden. Thus the apostasy would be
marked by a departure front primitive faith and
i>iire religion^ and by the authoritative inculcation
in its place of asceticism — the substitution of an
external religiousness, and self-imposed sacrifices,
for true holiness of heart For this external self-
denial was not true holiness, but a cover for the
reverse. Its professors would be hypocrites and
liars, men so sinful as to have lost their con-
science against sin ; " speaking lies in hypocrisy ;
having their conscience seared with a hot iron."
This feature of false profession reappears in the
corresponding prophecy in 2 Timothy concerning
the " last days," in which the abettors and adhe-

8o Romanism and the Reforjnation,

rents of the apostasy are described as men " having
a form of godliness^ but denying the power thereof."
These men were not then to be open opponents of
godliness, but, on the contrary, they would be great
professors. They were to have a form of godli-
ness: but only a form — a form covering no reality ;
a hollow form, a hypocritical form. Thus the two
great Pauline prophecies of the apostasy in " the
latter times " and " last days " warn the Church,
not against professed irreligionists. but against
professed religionists, against covert enemies of
the Gospel : men cloaked in the garment of self-
denial and superior sanctity; clever imitators of
the apostles, like the magicians of Egypt, who
witjistood Moses, not by denying his miracles, but

by counterfeiting them ; cunning men, who should

■

" fcreep into houses, and lead captive silly women
jaden with sins, led away with divers lusts " ; and
Vvithal educated men, men of letters, " ever learn-
ing, and never able to come to the knowledge oi
the truth/' Mark this well : the men whom Paul
described as the leaders of the apostasy which he
foresaw were not low^ igfiorant infidels, but learned
hypocrites, lying professors of religion, and self-
deceived ascetics.

It is in this same strain that he writes also to
the Thessalonians. The coming of Christ, he tells

Paul's Foreview of Romanism, 8 1

them, would not take place before the occurrence
of an " apostasy," or falling away from the faith.
This apostasy was to result from the working of
what he calls "/A^ mystery of iniquity ^^ — a re-
markable expression, in direct contrast to the
" mystery of godliness," from which the apostasy is
a departure. (Comp. i Tim. iii. i6.) The iniquity
in question was hidden. It was a '* mystery."
People did not recognise it as iniquity ; they were
deceived by it. From this " mystery of iniquity "
was to spring in due time " the man of sin," whose
coming was to be " after the working of Satan."
The outcome and issue of this Satan-inspired
apostasy would be " all deceivableness of unright-
eousness^'' " lying wonders^' and the belief of lies
under the influence of ^'strong delusion'' on the
part of those who had "pleasure in unrighteous-

ness."

All this is consistent. These Pauline prophecies
teach the same thing. They warn the Church
against the same danger. They predict the same
sort of apostasy ; an apostasy marked, not by
open hostility to the gospel, not by the denuncia-
tion of godliness and the unblushing profession
of infidelity or atheism, but by " hypocrisy," " de-
ceit," a " form of godliness," external religiousness,
the practice of asceticism, cloaking corruption—

G

82 Romanism and tJie Reformation,

by a beautiful garment of light covering the form
of the very prince of darkness.

But this apostasy was to have a head, and the
coming and character of that head are the great
subject of Paul's Thessalonian prophecy. A mis-
taken apprehension of his first letter to them had
led the Thessalonians to expect an immediate
advent of Christ, and in his second epistle Paul
sets himself to correct this error by further in-
struction as to the future. He tells them of
something that was destined to precede the return
of Christ; a great apostasy, which would reach its
climax in the manifestation of a certain mighty
power of evil ; to which he attaches three names,
and of which he gives many particulars simi-
lar to those which Daniel gave of his "little
horn," such as the place and time of its
origin, its nature, sphere, character, conduct, and
doom.

The names which the apostle gives to this head
of the apostasy in this prophecy are "that man
of sin, . . . the son of perdition," and "that
wicked " or " lawless " one. These expressions
might convey to the mind of superficial readers
the idea that the predicted head of the apostasy
would be an individual. Careful study however
shows this to be a false impression — an imprcs-

PauVs Foreview of Ro)itanism, 8

^

sion for which there is no solid foundation in
the passage. The expressions themselves, when
analysed grammatically, are seen to bear another
signification quite as well, if not better, and the
context demands that they be understood in a
dynastic sense. " The man of sin," like " the man
of God," has a broad, extended meaning. When
we read "that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works/' we do
not suppose it means any one individual man,
although it has the definite article. It indicates
a whole class of men of a certain character,
succession of similar individuals. The use of the
///definite article (analogous to the omission of the
article in Greek) does indeed limit an expression
of the kind. A man of sin could be only one,
just as a king of England could mean only an
individual. The king, on the other hand, may
include a whole dynasty. A king has but the
life of an individual, the king never dies. When, in
speaking of the Jewish tabernacle in Hebrews,
Paul says that into the holiest of all " went the
high priest alone once every year," he includes the
entire succession of the high priests of Israel.
That a singular expression in a prophecy may find
its fulfilment in a plurality of individuals is per*
fcctly clear from John's words, "As ye have heard

84 Romanism and the Reformatiojt.

that antichrist shall come, even so now arc there
many antichrists^ ^

Any doubt or ambiguity as to the true force
of the expression " the man of sin " is however
removed by a consideration of the context of this
passage. Grammatically it may mean either an
individual or a succession of similar individuals.
The context determines that it actually does mean
the latter. " The mystery of iniquity," in which
this man of sin was latent, was already working in
Paul's day. The apostasy out of which he was to
grow was already in existence. " The mystery of
iniquity doth already work." The man of sin, on
the other hand, was to continue till the second

* The following legal distinction should be borne in mind
in weighing this point. It is given in " Blackstone's Com-
mentary," book i., chapter i. " Persons are divided by the
law into either natural persons or artificial. Natural persons
are such as are formed by the God of nature ; artificial are
such as are created and devised by human laws for the
purposes of society and government, which are called corpo-
rations or bodies politic." Thus there is a sort of perpetual
person in whom a community subsists, as well as the person
whose life is confined within the limits of one individual
existence. Each isequally real, and either may be spoken
of in the singular. " The parson of a parish " may mean
either a man or a succession of men. So "the pope of
Rome" may intimate one single bishop or the long succes-
sion, — a perpetual person. So " the man of sin." See on
this subject a careful investigation in " The Apostasy Pre-
dicted by St. Paul," by Dr. O. Sullivan (Curry, Dublin).

PauTs Foreview of Romanism, 85

advent of Christ, which is still future ; for he is
destroyed, as it is distinctly stated, only by the
brightness of the epiphany. The interval between
Paul's days and those of the still future advent
was then to be filled by the great apostasy in
either its incipient working as a mystery of iniquity
or its open manifestation and great embodiment
in the career of " the man of sin and son of perdi-
tion." That career must consequently extend over
more than a thousand years, for the process of ges-
tation is certainly briefer than the duration of life.
In this case of the man of sin the tzvo togetJier
occupy at least eighteen centuries. What proportion
of the period can we assign to the hidden, mys-
terious growth of this power, and what to its
wonderfully active and influential life? The life
must of course occupy the larger half, to say the
least of it, and therefore, as no individual lives on
through ages, we may be sure that it is a succes-
sion of men, a dynasty of rulers, that is intended
by the ambiguous expression. We, students of
the nineteenth century, may be sure of this, though
the students of early centuries could not.

Paul himself probably supposed that the anti-
christ he foretold would be an individual, for it is
not always given to prophets to understand the
messages they are inspired to deliver. " Not unto

86 Romanism and the Reformation,

themselves, but unto us " they minister, as Peter
tells us. At any rate, the early Church thought
so, as their writings prove. They expected an
individual antichrist, who should be followed by
an immediate advent of Christ But it must be
remembered that the apostles and the early Church
knew nothing of the eighteen centuries of delay
which have actually taken place. They could not
have guessed or even conceived that well-nigh
two thousand years would pass before the second
advent. They expected it in their own day. Paul
wrote as if he himself would see it : " We who are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord " ;
and no revelation was given the effect of which
would have been to rob the early Church of that
sweet and sanctifying hope. On the contrary, the
prediction of the apostasy and the antichrist who
should head it up are purposely so worded as not
to extinguish that hope. Even in Daniel, where
chronological limits are assigned to the Roman
" little horn," the expression which conveys them
IS symbolic, and could be interpreted with certainty
only by the fulfilment.

No duration at all is mentioned in this prophecy
by Paul, only the two limits, "Already" the
apostasy was developing, and it would not be
destroyed till the advent. That much was clearly

PauVs Foreview of Romamsm. 87

revealed, but not the length of the interval be-
tween the starting-point in apostolic days in the
first century, and the advent, which has not yet —
in the nineteenth — taken place. There was a good
reason for the form of the prophecy — for the
ambiguous use of the singular number. // neither
asserted nor excluded a dynastic meaning. Time
alone could decide, and time has decided.

Bearing this in mind, let us now look at Paul's
prophetic portrait of the great antichristian power
he foresaw and foretold.

It is a strange one, with marked and most pecu-
liar features.* He is represented as seated in the
temple or house of God ; i,e, the Church, " the
habitation of God through the Spirit," God's
dwelling-place — a sacred sphere, the most sacred
on earth. There in the midst, exalted and en-
throned, sits a sinful mortal, an enemy of God, a
" man of sin," engaged in receiving from a multi-
tude of deluded apostate Christians worshipful
submission and adoration. Beneath him, like a
dark cloud or vapour, out of which he has arisen,
is a " mystery of iniquity." There is a chrono-
logical date upon the cloud. Close examination
shows inscribed on it the words, "doth already
work," indicating its existence in Paul's day,
eighteen centuries ago. On one side lies a broken

88 Romanism and the Reformation,

arch, covered with Roman sculpture. This arch
had at one period blocked the way from the dark
under cloud to the exalted seat occupied by the
"man of sin." In Paul's day it stood firm, a
massive hindrance ; but he foresaw that it would
be "taken out ot the way." By some mighty
stroke it has been rent, and lies in fragments.
The barrier has been "taken out of the way."
Through the ruinous gap the mystery of iniquity
has come up into the holy place in the form of
" all deceivableness of unrighteousness." Mingled
with a vast mass of deceit there are certain lead-
ing lies, which are firmly believed, and many
" lying wonders."

The countenance ot the "man of sin" is
marked by pretended sanctity. There is in it a
look of elevation, marred by pride. The features
are full of power and intelligence. His head is
circled with a crown of a peculiar form, unlike that
worn by ordinary kings, and upon it is the title
" King of kings and Lord of lords," — implying
that he is ruler both of the Church and of the
world, because as God on earth. His hand is
lifted in the attitude of one bestowing Divine
favours. His semblance is that of benignity and
blessing, while the spirit of the man is that of the
great adversary. Behind him, half concealed, is a

f.

PauVs Foreview of Romanism, 89

dark figure difficult to make out, with a face full
of malignity. There is a gleam of defiance in his
eye, and a deadly purpose in his aspect He too
wears a crown, and the name written on it in
yellow, sulphurous letters is, " god of this world."
He stands close to the " man of sin," — too close to
be seen by the worshipping multitude, — directing
and inspiring all his utterances and all his move-
ments. With extraordinary skill he wields a
world-wide power through this chosen agent, a
power which has been exercised in various ways
for six thousand years, deluding men to their
destruction, but which reaches its climax in this
combination of satanic craft • with ecclesiastical
exaltation. By the mouth of the "man of sin "
he speaks to the multitude thronging the holy
temple, or house of God, in a tone of authority,
commanding them to submit to his teachings and
guidance, and to abase themselves in his presence.
His words are, " Fall down and worship mer The
deluded multitude blindly obeys him, as though
his voice was the voice of God !

Under the feet of the " man of sin " are two
venerable volumes, bearing the titles " Laws
Human and Divine." He is trampling on them
both, treading them under-foot ! Some in the
crowd are pointing to this fact, and stand in a

J.

go Romanism and the Reformation.

protesting attitude. In the distance there are
prophets and apostles looking on. Far above —
a perfect contrast in every respect to the self-
exalting "man of sin " — is seen the self-humbling
and self-sacrificing Son of God. He too is seated,
seated on a radiant throne, from which celestial
glory is streaming. His attitude is that of one
coming in judgment for the destruction of the
" man of sin " and his sinful worshippers. Many
of the protestors are looking at him in anticipation
of His advent, and seem to have something of
His likeness. The face of the man of sin is the
face of a false apostle, the dark face of a Judas.
Written upon the wall of the temple, in letters of
light, just above the proud, false, central figure,
is the name ^^ son of perdition^ The man of sin
is a Judas — a secret enemy while a seeming friend
— a " familiar friend," yet a fatal foe who betrays
with a kiss and a " hail, master ! "

There are several features in this portrait which
I must ask you specially to notice. Observe the
place occupied by the man of sin — the " temple " or
house of God. This is not, and cannot be, any
Jewish temple. Paul, who uses this expression in
his prophetic portrait of Romanism, employs it
both in Corinthians and Ephesians with reference
to the Christian Church. In the second Epistle

Patifs Foreview of Romanism. 9 1

to the Corinthians, writing to Gentile Christians,
he says, " Ye are the temple of t/ie living God ; as
God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk
in them." In Ephesians he calls the Church "a
holy temple," a "habitation of God through the
Spirit"; and he would never have applied it to
the Jewish temple, which, with all other Jewish
things, he regarded as mere shadows of Christian
realities. To Paul emphatically the temple of
God was the Church of Christ. This is the temple
in which his prophetic eye saw the man of sin
seated. It is no question of his bodily location in
any structure of wood and stone, but of something
far higher. The temple of God is that " spiritual
house " in which He dwells. It is built of " living
stones," of true believers. It is here that the
man of sin was to usurp the place of God. This
IS the "mystery," the dread danger, the deadly
evil, predicted by the Apostle. It is no person in
a temple of stone, but a power in the Christian
Church.

Observe next the cliaracter of the man of sin.
He is at once an imitation of Christ, and a con-
trast to Him. He occupies His position, but is
totally unlike Him, and opposed to Him. He has
usurped His place and His prerogatives ; but, so
far from truly representing Him, he represents

92 Romanism and the Reformation.

His great enemy. As Christ acts for God, so the
man of sin acts for Satan, who indeed produces
him for this very purpose. His coming is " after
the working of Satan." Christ and he are antago-
nistic powers : the power of light, and the power
of darkness ; the majesty of heaven, and the might
of hell. And as the Son of God humbled Him-
self, so the " man of sin " exalts himself. There
is infinite self-abasement in the one, the Divine
nature stooping to humanity ; and infinite self-
exaltation in the other, the human and satanic
assuming to be Divine. Observe here that it is
not asserted that the man of sin will say that he
is God, but that he will show himself as such. The
words are, " He as God sitteth in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God" or is Divine,
or a Divine being {anroi^iKvivTa eavrbv otl icrl
©eo?). There is no article here before the name
God. The expression indicates that the man ot
sin would show himself by acts and professions to
be possessed of superhuman and Divine dignity,
authority, and power.

Observe the position ot the man of sin.
Notice the word KaOiaai, "sitteth," and connect
with it KaOiSpa, a seat, a word which occurs three
times in the New Testament. It is used twice
with reference to the seats in the temple of those

Paul's Foreview of Rojnanisfu. 93

who sold doves, who turned the house of God into
a house of merchandise and den of thieves ; and
once in the sentence, " the Pharisees sit in Moses*
seat" From xadiSpa comes "cathedral," the
bishop's seat,'* and also the expression ex cathedra ;
as when we say the pope speaks ex cathedra^ or
from his seat, officially. There, in that exalted ca-
thedral position, and claiming to represent God, the
man of sin was to act and abide as the pretended
vicar, but real antagonist, of Christ, undermining
His authority, abolishing His laws, and oppressing
His people. Observe the words, " wlio opposeth^
It is possible effectually to oppose another without
being his avowed antagonist ; so the professions of
the predicted power might be friendly, while his
actmis would be those of an opponent of the
gospel of Christ.

We have said that the principles which were
ultimately to produce the man of sin had already
begun to operate in Paul's own day. His words
are, " The mystery of iniquity doth already work " ;
and these principles would continue to work until
the full development of the apostasy, and its final
destruction at the second advent : that is, through-
out the eighteen Christian centuries. The sphere
of their operation therefore cannot be the Jewish
temple, which was destroyed in the first century,

94 Romanism and the Reformatioji,

but must needs be the professing Christian
Church.

An important point in the prophecy is the exis-
tence in apostolic times of a certain restraining
/^7c<?r, withholding while it lasted the manifestation
of the man of sin. Paul, for good reasons, speaks
of it in guarded language, as " he who letteth," or
"that which hinders." What it was Paul knew,
and the Thessalonians knew from him : " Remem-
ber ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told
you } " The early Church — from whom alone we
can learn what Paul told them by word of mouth,
but refrained from committing to writing — has
left it on record that the Apostle had told them
that this hindering power was the dominion Oj
the Roman Ccesars ; that while they continued to
reign at Rome, the development of the predicted
power of evil was impossible. Hence it would
seem that Rome would be the seat of the man
of sin. During the continuance of the Roman
empire there was no opportunity for him to rise ;
he would only be manifested on its fall. While
the Caesars reigned he could not appear, but when
they passed away he would succeed them.

Notice particularly that, just as the expression,
" he that letteth," comprehends the line or succes-
sion of the CcBsars^ so the expression, "he that

Pauls Foreview of Romanism, 95

sitteth,'* may well comprehend an analogous line
or succession of rulers. Both expressions refer to
dynasties, and not to individuals.

The distinctive names given by Paul to the
great head of the apostasy are expressive of his
c/iaracter. They are the " man of sin," the " son
of perdition," and " that wicked " (o avofiof:, the
lawless one). First, it was to be to an extraor-
dinary extent sinful itself, and the occasion of
sin in others; secondly, it would be like /udas,
and share his doom ; and, thirdly, it would set at
defiance all laws, whether human or Divine. It
would be inspired by Satan, and, on account of its
evil character and actions, it would be doomed to
destruction ; it would eventually " go to its own
place" — the bottomless pit, from whence it ema-
nated. Its doom was to fall /// Iwo stages: the
Lord Himself would consume it by the spirit of
His mouth, and destroy it by the brightness of
His epiphany, or advent in power and glory.
There would be first a consumption, then a
destruction. It would continue until the second
coming of Christ — a statement which, as you will
observe, involves the Lord's return before the
millennium, since there can be no millennium
under the reign of the man of sin, nor prior to
his utter destruction.

96 Romanism and the Reformation,

Let us now compare this portrait of the man
of sin drawn by the Apostle Paul with the por-
trait of the self-exalting power foretold by Daniel,
which we studied last week. The comparison will
demonstrate their identity.

1. Both are Roman, The self-exalting horn
or head represented by Daniel is Roman; it
belongs to the fourth or Roman empire. So also
does Paul's man of sin, for the imperial govern-
ment seated at Rome needed to be removed in
order to make way for its rise and dominion. It
was to be the successor of the Caesars at Rome.
They have the same geographical seat.

2. They have the same chronological point oj
origin : both arise on the fall of the old undivided
empire of Rome. And they have the same chro-
nological termination : Daniel's little horn perishes
at the coming of the Son of man in glory, and
Paul's man of sin is destroyed at the epiphany.

3. Both exalt tlumselves against God, Daniel
mentions the proud words of the blasphemous
little horn, and Paul the audacious deeds of the
man of sin, showing himself as Divine.

4. Both begin as small^ inconspicuous powers,
and develop gradually to very great and influential
ones.

5. Both claim to be teachers of men, Daniel's

Paul's For ev lew of Romanism. 97

little horn was to have eyes, as a bishop, or over-
seer (the meaning of the word bishop, iiriaKOTrof;,
is overseer) ; and that he was to have a mouthy
that is, that he was to be a teacher; while Paul
assigns to the man of sin ecclesiastical eminence,
a proud position in the temple of God, or Chris-
tian Church.

6. Both are persecutors. Daniel describes the
little horn as a persecutor wearing out the saints,
and Paul speaks of the man of sin as "opposing,"
and calls him " the lawless one/*

To sum up. The two have the same place —
Rome ; the same period — from the sixth century to
the second coming of the Lord in glory ; the same
wicked character, the same lawlessness, the same
self-exalting defiance of God, the same gradual
growth from weakness to dominion, the same epi-
scopal pretensions, the same persecuting character,
the same twofold doom.

These resemblances are so important, so nume-
rous, so comprehensive, and exact, as to prove
beyond all question that the self-exalting, perse-
cuting power predicted by Daniel and this man
of sin foretold by Paul are one and tlie same power.
Even Romanists admit this to be the case, and
call the power thus doubly predicted the anti-
Christ.

98 Roptanisvt and the Reformat io7i.

In the Douay Bible, with notes, issued under
Romish authority, and bearing the signatures of
Cardinals Wiseman and Manning, the "man of
sin " is interpreted as follows : " ' He sitteth in the
temple of God,* etc. By all these words is de-
scribed to us the great antichrist^ . . . according
to the unquestionable authority and consent of the
ancient Fathers." Rome allows thus that the " little
horn" of Daniel and the "man of sin" of Paul
foreshow one and the same power, and admits that
power to be the antichrist.

So far then for our examination of the prophc-
cies of the Roman antichrist, given, some of them
a thousand, and others five hundred years before
the actual appearance of the predicted power.
Strange and incomprehensible must these prophe-
cies have appeared, both to those who gave them
and to those who received them. Little could
they imagine the tremendous scale, both geo-
graphical and chronological, on which they were
to be fulfilled ! They understood clearly that an
awful apostasy was to intervene between the early
Church and the advent ; but how far it would
extend and how long it would last they knew
not, and could not know. A terrible enemy to
God and to His Church was to arise, strange as it

might seem, in that Church itself ; and yet it was
to have its seat in Rome, which was in their day
the throne of the pagan persecutors of Christi-
anity. How could these things be? Much was
revealed, but much was left still utterly mysteri-
ous, and which time only could interpret.

Turn now from the prophecy to the history^ and
let the latter interpret the former. We see what
was predicted, let us ask what has happened
What are tlu historical facts ? The history of the
Christian Church does not record a steady pro-
gress in the pathway of truth and holiness, an
uninterrupted spread of the kingdom of God on
earth. On the contrary, it tells the story of a
TREMENDOUS APOSTASY. Even in the first cen-
tury, as we learn from the New Testament, there
set in a departure from the gospel, and a return
to certain forms of ritualism, as among the Gala-
tians. In the second and third centuries, anti-
christian doctrine and antichristian practices,
sacramentarianism and sacerdotalism, invaded the
Church, and gradually climbed to a commanding
position, which they never afterwards abandoned.
In the fourth century, with the fall of paganism,
began a worldly, imperial Christianity, wholly
unlike primitive apostolic Christianity, a sort of
Christianized heathenism ; and in the fifth and

lOO Rovianism and the Refor^natmi.

sixth centuries sprang up the Papacy, in whose
career the apostasy culminated later on.

The mighty Caesars had fallen ; Augustus,
Domitian, Hadrian, Diocletian, were gone ; even
the Constantines and Julians had passed away.
The seat of sovereignty had been removed from
Rome to Constantinople. Goths and Vandals
had overthrown the western empire ; the once
mighty political structure lay shivered into broken
fragments. The imperial government was slain
by the Gothic sword. The Caesars were no more,
and Rome was an actual desolation. Then
slowly on the ruins of old imperial Rome
rose another power and another monarchy — a
monarchy of loftier aspirations and more resistless
might, clain^ing dominion, not alone over the
bodies, but over the consciences and souls of men ;
dominion, not only within the limits of the fallen
empire, but throughout the entire world. Higher
and higher rose the Papacy, till in the dark ages
all Christendom was subject to its sway.

** Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter,"
says Gibbon, " the nations began to resume the
practice of seeking on the banks of the Tiber their
kings, their laws, and the oracles of their fate."
And this was a voluntary submission. As a king-
dom, the Papacy was not at that time in any

Paul's Forevieiv of Romanism. loi

position to enforce it. Not by military power,
but by spiritual and religious pretensions, did the
Bishop of Rome attain supremacy in the Church
and in the world ; it was by his lofty claim to be
the vicegerent of Christ, by his assumption that
he was as God on earth, — it was by means of his
episcopal position that he attained by degrees
supreme power, not in the Church only, but in
the world.

The growth of this power to these gigantic
proportions was a most singular phenomenon.
Tyndale, the Reformer, speaking of it, says :

" To see how the holy father came up, mark the
ensample of the ivy. First it springeth up out of
the earth, and then awhile creepeth along by the
ground, till it find a great tree. Then it joineth
itself beneath, unto the body of the tree, and
creepeth up a little and a little, fair and softly.
At the beginning, while it is yet thin and small,
the burden is not perceived ; it seemeth glorious
to garnish the tree in winter. But it holdeth fast
withal, and ceaseth not to climb up till it be at
the top, and even above all. And then it sendeth
its branches along by the branches of the tree, and
overgroweth all, and waxeth great, heavy, and
thick ; and it sucketh the moisture so sore out of
the tree and his branches, that it choaketh and

I02 Romanism and the Reformation.

stifleth them. And then the foul, stinking ivy
waxeth mighty in the stump of the tree, and
becometh a seat and a nest for all unclean birds,
and for blind owls, which hawk in the dark, and
dare not come to the light.

" Even so the Bishop of Rome, now called pope,
at the beginning crope along upon the earth, and
every man trod on him. As soon as there came
a Christian emperor, he joined himself to his feet
and kissed them, and crope up a little, with b^-
ging now this privilege, now that . . . And
thus with flattering and feigning and vain super-
stition, under the name of St Peter he crept up,
and fastened his roots in the heart of the emperor,
and with his sword climbed above all his fellow
bishops, and brought them under his feet. And
as he subdued them by the emperor's sword, even
so, after they were sworn faithful, he, by their
means, climbed up above the emperor, and sub-
dued him also, and made him stoop unto his feet
and kiss them. . . . And thus the pope, the
father of all hypocrites, hath with falsehood and
guile perverted the order of the world, and turned
things upside down."

" All the kings of the West reverence the pope
as a God on earth," said Gregory II., and he spoke
truly. Sismondi describes how Pepin and the

Paul's Foreinew of Romanism. 103

Franks received him as a divinity. His dogmas
were regarded as oracles ; his bulls and sentences
as the voice of God. "The people think of the
pope as the one God that has power over all
things in earth and in heaven." Marcellus, ad-
dressing the pope at the Lateran Council, said,
"Thou art another God on earth"; and "our Lord
God the pope " was an oft accepted title. These
are facts, substantial facts of history, which can be
proved by countless documents, and which indeed
no Romanist will deny. The people rendered and
the pope received worship — the worship due to
God alone. At the coronation of Pope Innocent
X., Cardinal Colonna, in his own name and that
of the clergy of St. Peter*s, addressed the follow-
ing words to the pope, "kneeling on his knees":
" Most holy and blessed father ! head ot the
Church, ruler of the world, to whom the keys of
the kingdom of heaven are committed, whom the
angels in heaven revere, and the gates of hell fear,
and all the world adores, we specially venerate,
worship, and adore thee ! " What blasphemous
exaltation is here ! Have not Paul's words been
fulfilled } Has not this man of sin, sitting in the
temple of God, shown himself that he is God, or
allowed himself to be treated as Divine, nay, even
claimed to be so treated } He allowed himself to

I04 Rontanisvi and the Reformation.

be styled " the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world," because he gave and sold
indulgences for sin. He was even more merciful
than Christ; for He left souls in purgatory, and
the pope took them out! He could command
even the angels of heaven, and add saints to the
celestial choir, raising dead men to form part of
heaven*s hierarchy as "saints," and causing them
henceforth to be worshipped by the Church on
earth.

In all this the pope was as God upon

EARTH. It was his to speak and govern as God ;
it was the world's to bow down, to believe, and
to obey.

See him in his robes of more than kingly
royalty, with his crown of more than terrestrial
dominion — not one, but three, three in one, a triple
crown. The proud tiara of the Papacy symbolizes
power on earth, in heaven, and in hell ; in all
three the pope claims to rule. He is far above
all kings. He is the vicegerent of God, the
regent of the universe ! He never rises from his
pontifical throne to any person whomsoever, nor
uncovers himself before mortal man. He does not
even condescend to honour any human being by
the least inclination of his head. His nuncios and
legates take precedence of the ambassadors of all

PatiVs Forevieiu of Romanism. 105

crowned heads. Cardinals, the chief princes of
the Church, adore his holiness upon their bended
knees, kissing his right hand, and even his feet !
At his coronation they set him on tlie high altar
of St Peter's^ and adore him as the representative
of Deity. He is carried in lofty state on men's
shoulders, beneath a canopy hung with fringe
of gold. People, prelates, princes, and cardinals
exalt and worship him with the most solemn cere-
monies. He is head of the universal Church,
arbiter of its rights and privileges. He wears
the keys, as the sign of his power to open the
gates of heaven to all believers. He holds two
swords, as judging in things temporal and spiri-
tual. He is " the sole and supreme judge of men,
and can himself be judged of no man." He
is the husband of the Church, and as such wears
a ring, indicating her perpetual betrothal to him-
self. Thousands upon thousands kneel before
him ; they struggle to get near his person ; they
stretch forth their hands to obtain his indulgences,
and crave his quasi-Divine benediction, that ^^ smoke
of smokel' as Luther called it. The deluded
multitude rend the air with acclamations at his
approach. In his processions all is gorgeous
magnificence. Swiss guards and other attendants
form his cortege, in scarlet cloaks, embroidered

io6 Romanism and the Reformation.

with gold, with silver maces and rich caparisons,
silk housings, red velvets, purples, satins laced
with gold, long flowing robes sweeping the ground,
some crimson, some black, some white, and caps
adorned with precious stones, and helmets glitter-
ing in the sun. His litter is lined with scarlet
velvet, fringed with gold, and he himself is clothed
in a white satin cassock, with rochet, stole, and
mozette, all of red velvet if it is winter, or of red
satin if it is summer. At his adoration by the
canons and clergy of St. Peter's, he is clothed in
a white garment and seated on a throne, and
thus attired he ^* firesides in the temple of the
Lordr

Mark these words : he " presides in the temple
of the Lord." I took them from Picart*s descrip-
tion of the Roman ceremonial, a Roman Catholic
authority. It is the Romanists themselves who
use this significant phrase of the Papal pontiff:
he " presides in the temple of the Lord." Exalted
to this position, he is incensed, and the cardinals,
one at a time, in solemn, deliberate state and
idolatrous submission, kiss his hand, his foot, and
even his stomach. He is surrounded by car-
dinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priests, and
princes. Enormous fans of peacocks' feathers arc
carried on either side of his chair, as used to be

PaiiVs Forevieiv of Romanism. 107

done to the pagan monarchs of olden times. He
directs the affairs of the greatest empire upon
earth, governing by an almost infinite number of
men, whom he keeps constantly in subjection to
himself, and from whom he demands frequent
periodical account. He distributes spiritual gifts,
and exalts to the highest preferments, not only
on earth, but also in heaven : for is it not his to
make bishops and archbishops, to canonize whom
he will, and to decree their perpetual memorial
and worship in the world ?

All power is delivered unto him. He forgives
sins; he bestows grace; he cancels punishments,
even in purgatory ; he restores the lapsed ; he
excommunicates the rebellious ; he can make that
which is unlawful, lawful ; he cannot err ; his
sentences are final, his utterances infallible, his
decrees irreformable. O dread dominion! O
dizzy height ! O blasphemous assumption ! O
sublime, satanic tyranny! who is like unto thee,
thou resuscitated Caesar, thou false Christ ? Lord
of the conscience, thou sittest there as a very
deity, QUASI Deus, as God. Thou sittest supreme,
as thine own words are witness, " in the temple of
the Lord " !

Look again at the confessional^ where every priest
sits as an image of the pope his master^ with the

io8 Romanism and the Reformation.

sacred cojisciences of men and women beneath his
feet, as though he were a god ! For mark, he
searches the heart, the very secrets of the soul ;
he demands the discovery and confession of all
its sins; he makes himself master of all its
thoughts and intents ; lie sits in that temple, the
temple of tlie human conscience^ which God claims
solely for Himself. Oh, awful position ! And there
he presumes to reign, to decide, to absolve from
sin; "Absolvo te," I absolve thee, is his word.
The sinner regards him as holding the place of
Jesus Christ. This Romish work is a witness that
it is so. This is the Ursidine Manual, Here, in
the chapter for the direction of those who go to
confession, and every Papist does, are these words,
"Confessors should not be viewed in any other
h'ght than , , , as Iiolding the place of Jesus
Christ'* (p. 177). And again, on p. 182, "When
you leave the confessional, do not disturb your
mind by examining whether you have been con-
fessed well, or have forgotten any of your sins ;
but rest assured that, if you have made your
confession with sincerity,^ and the other requisite
dispositions, ^e?« are^ according to the express deci-
sions of the Council of Trent, fully absolved from
every sift'* "Who can forgive sins, but God
only?" See how the "man of sin'* sits in

Paul's Foreview of Romanism, 1 09

God's temple, and robs Him of His place and His
prerogative !

Look at this other book. It is the volume ot
the laws and constitution of the Jesuits. Here,
on p. 10, the Jesuit is taught that his superior,
whoever he may be, must be recognised, reve-
renced, and submitted to with perfect and com-
plete subjection of act and thought, as occupying
t/ie place of Jesus Christ, Thus the priest in
the confessional, and the superior in the Jesuit
order, and the bishop and archbishop and car-
dinal, all reflect the sacerdotal supremacy of the
pope, who sits there in God's very temple, the
temple of conscience and of the Christian Church,
as a usurping god — quasi Deiis^ as if God Him-
self.

But we must pass on from this point, the posi-
tion assumed by the man of sin in the Church of
God, and ask whether Romanism has fulfilled the
other predictions of St. Paul as to " lying won-
ders" and " signs," or false miracles, and the deceits
of unrighteousness. Has she employed these as
a means of gaining " power," deluding her votaries
that she might the more effectually enslave them ?
To exalt the priesthood, and especially its head,
the Papal highpriest, Rome has spared nothing.
She has trampled alike on the intellect and con-

no Romamsm and the Reformation,

science of mankind, and despised the eternal well-
being of souls by inducing them to believe lies.

The man of sin was to come with all power
and signs and lying wonders, in all deceivableness
of unrighteousness. Just as the apostles wrought
miracles to confirm the gospel they preached — or
rather, as the Lord wrought with them and con-
firmed the word with signs following — so Satan
would work with antichrist, endorsing his pre-
tensions with false miracles designed to overthrow
the gospel. Bishop John Jewell, of Salisbury,
wrote in the sixteenth century :

" Of the first sort of false miracles, we have
seen an infinite number in the days of our fathers
in the kingdom of antichrist. Then was there an
appearance of spirits and visions of angels : our
lady came swimming down from heaven ; poor
souls came creeping and crying out of purgatory,
and jetted abroad ; and kept stations, casting
flakes of fire, and beset highways, and bemoaned
their cases, the pains and torments were so
bitter.

"They sought for help, and cried for good
prayers ; they cried for dirges, they cried for
masses of requiem, for masses of scala cccli^ for
trentals of masses. Hereof grew portsalc ot
pardons, and hereof grew the province of purga-

Paul's Foreview of Romanism, 1 1 1

tory, the most gainful country that ever was under
the city of Rome.

" But these miracles were no miracles at all ;
they were devised by subtle varlets and lazy
lordanes for a purpose, to get money. Oftentimes
the spirit has been taken and laid in the stocks ;
the angel has been stript ; the good lady has been
caught ; the conveyance of the miracle has
appeared ; the engines, and sleights, and the
c^use, and the manner of the working have been
confessed.

" In those days idols could go on foot ; roods
could speak ; bells could ring alone ; images could
come down, and light their own candles ; dead
stocks could sweat, and bestir themselves ; they
could turn their eyes ; they could move their
hands ; they could open their mouths ; they could
set bones and knit sinews ; they could heal the
sick, and raise up the dead.

" These miracles were conveyances and sub-
tleties, and indeed no miracles ; the trunks by
which they spake, the strings and wires with
which they moved their faces and hands, all the
rest of their treachery, have been disclosed. These
are the miracles of which Paul speaks — miracles
in sight, in appearance, but indeed no miracles.

"... It was also arranged, that the saints

1 1 2 Romantsfn ana the Reformation.

should not have power to work in all places.
Some wrought at Canterbury, some at Walsing-
ham, some at York, some at Buxton, some in
one place, some in another, some in the towns,
some in the fields. Even as Jeremiah said among
the Jews, chapter xi., * According to the number of
thy cities were thy gods.* Hereof grew pilgrim-
ages and worshipping of images, and kissing of
reliques ; hereof grew oblations, and enriching of
abbeys ; every man had his peculiar saint on
whom he called ; every country was full of chapels^
every chapel full of miracles^ and every miracle full
of lies.

" These miracles are wrought by antichrist ;
they are his tools, wherewith he worketh ; they
are his weapons, wherewith he prevaileth ; they
are full of lying, full of deceitfulness, and full of
wickedness: so shall antichrist prevail, and rule
over the world. By these miracles he shall
possess the ears, the eyes, and the hearts of many,
and shall draw them after him." ^

It was alleged that miracles were not only
wrought by the saints, but even by the relics of
the saints. In Calvin's tractate on the subject
of relics, he proves that the great majority of
the relics in use among Romanists are spurious,

^ Jewell on 2 Thessalonians, p. 245.

I

I\i?trs I^irtviciu of Roiuariisiu. 113

having been brought forward by impostors, so that
every apostle is made to have three or four bodies,
and every saint two or three, and that the gar-
ments of Christ are almost infinite in number!
As His body ascended to heaven, relics of //
were not of course available ; but spurious relics
of everything He ever used or handled have been
multiplied ad nauseam. Even the body of Christ
has not escaped ; the teeth, the hair, and the blood
are exhibited in hundreds of places ; the manger
in which He was laid at His birth, the linen in
which He was swaddled. His cradle, the first shirt
His mother put on Him, the pillar against which
He leant in the temple, the water-pots that were
at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, and even the
wine that was made in them, the shoes that He
used when He was a boy, the table on which He
observed the Last Supper, and hundreds of similar
things are shown — many of them in a number 01
places — to this day. And as to the relics con-
nected with our Lord's sufferings and death, they
are just innumerable. The fragments of the true
cross scattered over the globe would, if catalogued,
fill a volume. " There is no town, however small,
which has not some morsel of it ; and this not only
in the principal cathedral church of the district,
but also in parish churches. There is scarcely an

I

114 Romanism and the Reformahoji.

abbey so poor as not to have a specimen. In
some places larger fragments exist, as at Paris,
Poictiers, and Rome. If all the pieces which could
be found were collected into a heap, they would
form a good ship load ; though the gospel testifies
that a single individual was able to carry the real
cross. What effrontery then thus to fill the whole
world with fragments which it would take more
than three hundred men to carry ! ... In
regard to the crown of thorns, it would seem that
its twigs had been planted that they might grow
again ; otherwise I know not how it could have
attained such a size. ... I would never come
to an end were I to go one by one over all the
absurd articles they have drawn into this service.
At Rome is shown the reed which was put into
our Saviour's hands as a sceptre ; . . . the
sponge which was offered to Him containing
vinegar mixed with gall. How, I ask, were those
things recovered } They were in the hands of the
wicked. Did they give them to the apostles that
they might preserve them for relics, or did they
themselves lock them up that they might preserve
them for some future period? What blasphemy
to abuse the name of Christ by employing it as a
cloak for such drivelling fables ! " ^

> " Admonition Showing the Advantages which Christen-

Paul's Foreview of Romanism, 115

Among the images that Rome worships, a cer-
tain class are miraculous. The figure on the
crucifix of Burgos in Spain is said to have a beard
which grows perpetually, and there are similar
ones in three or four other places. The stupid
people believe the fable to be true. Other cruci-
fixes are said to have spoken — a whole number.
Others shed tears, as for instance one at Treves,
and another at Orleans. From others the warm
blood flows periodically. Miraculous images of
the virgin are even more numerous. As they hold
that the body of the virgin ascended to heaven
like that of her Son, they cannot pretend to have
her bones like those of the saints. Had it been
otherwise, they would have given her a body of
such size as would fill a thousand coffins. But
they have made up for this lack by her hair and
her milk. There is no town however small, no
monastery or nunnery however insignificant, which
does not possess some of this — some in small,
others in large quantities. As Calvin says : " Had
the breasts of the most holy virgin yielded a
more copious supply than is given by a cow, and
had she continued to nurse during her whole
lifetime, she could scarcely have furnished the

dom might Derive from an Inventory of Relics." — Calvin :
Tracts^ vol. i., p. 289.

ii6 Romanism and the Reformation,

quantity which is exhibited. I would fain know,"
he asks, "how it was collected so as to be pre-
served until our time. Luke relates the prophecy
which Simeon made to the virgin, but he does
not say that Simeon asked her to give him some
milk." The fabrication of these relics was a lucra-
tive trade throughout the middle ages ; especially
were dead bodies invested with sacredness by at-
taching to them the names of saints and martyrs.
Toulouse, for instance, thinks it possesses six
bodies of the apostles : James, Andrew, James
the Less, Philip, Simeon, and Jude; but duplicates
of these bodies are also in St. Peter's and other
churches in Rome. Matthias has also another at
Treves ; and there are heads and arms of him
existing at different places sufficient to make up
another body. What shall we say of the spirit
that encourages the belief in lies and deceives
men in this style? The degradation inflicted on
the ignorant and unlearned by these fables is
terrible, as any one who watches their effect in
Ireland or on the Continent is aware. Whether
the miracles of the man of sin be real or pre-
tended, true or false, it matters little. The main
point is, they are directed to establish falsehood.
** He relies for his success on the effects to be
wrought in human minds by wonders and deceits

Paul's Foreview of Romanism. 117

accomplished in the energy of Satan." He em-
ploys wonders and deceits, a pretence to miracu-
lous powers. Romanism has availed herself of
such fraudulent practices to an enormous extent,
and has profited by them both financially and
otherwise.

But lying wonders to impose on the ignorant
and superstitious masses were not the only means
by which the Papacy attained its power in the
middle ages ; spurious documents, impostures of
another kind, were used to influence the royal,
noble, and educated classes. Principal among
these were the celebrated decretal epistles^ a forgery
which produced the most important consequences
for the Papacy, though its spurious nature was
ultimately detected. Gibbon writes : " Before the
end of the eighth century, some apostolical scribe,
perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the
'decretals* and the 'donation of Constantine* —
the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal
monarchy of the popes. This memorable donation
was introduced to the world by an epistle of Pope
Adrian I., who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate
the liberality and revive the name of the great
Constantine.^ Their effect was enormous in advanc-

* Gibbon : " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,"
chap. xlix.

ii8 Romanism and the Reformation,

ing both the temporal power and the ecclesiastical
supremacy of the popes. The donation of Con-
stantine founded the one, and the false decretals
the other. The latter pretended to be decrees of
the early bishops of Rome limiting the indepen-
dence of all archbishops and bishops by establish-
ing a supreme jurisdiction of the Roman see in all
cases, and by forbidding national councils to be
held without its consent. " Upon these spurious
decretals," says Mr. Hallam in his " History of the
Middle Ages," " was built the great fabric of Papal
supremacy over the different national Churches
— a fabric which has stood after its foundation
crumbled beneath it, for no one has pretended to
deny for the last two centuries that the imposture
is too palpable for any but the most ignorant ages
to credit"

It is evident then that Romanism has fulfilled
this part of the prophecy of the "man of sin,"
even him whose coming was to be after the work-
ing of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders and all deceivableness of unrighteous-
ness. The power of the popes was built up on
frauds and deceits of this character, and has been
maintained over all the nations subject to it ever
since by pretended miracles, spurious relics, lying
wonders, and unrighteous deceits. And all these

Paul's Foreview of Romanism. 1 1 9

have been employed to oppose the gospel and
establish falsehood.

In considering the ecclesiastical aspect of
Romanism, we must never lose sight that it is
the outcome and climax of the predicted apostasy,
whose features Paul describes in Timothy. We
must close this lecture with a few remarks on
tJte departure from the faith which occupies so
prominent a place in that description. Some
should "depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking
lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry, and com-
manding to abstain from meats." The faith must
of course here be taken in a broad sense, as in-
cluding all the doctrines and commandments of
the Christian religion. The apostasy was to be
marked by a departure from this faith, by the
teaching of false doctrines, and the inculcation
of anti-scriptural practices. That Popery is com-
pletely at variance with the Bible on all the
important points of the faith of Christ may be
safely asserted, and can be abundantly proved.
We can select but a few of the principal points.

I. The Apostle Paul teaches that the Holy Scrip-
tures are able to make us " wise unto salvation,"
that they are capable of rendering the man of God
" throughly furnished " ; and James speaks of the

I20 Romanism and the Reformation,

ingrafted word of God as " able to save the soul."
The true doctrine therefore is that Scripture con-
tains all that is necessary to salvation. What is
the doctrine of Romanism on this point ? One of
the articles of the Council of Trent asserts that,
not only should the Old and New Testaments be
received with reverence as the word of God, but
also "the unwritten traditions which have come
down to us, pertaining both to faith and manners,
and preserved in the Catholic Church by continual
succession." In considering this decree, and its
fatal effects in exalting mere human traditions
to the level of Divine revelation, one is reminded
of the solemn words which close the Apocalypse:
"If any man shall add unto these things, God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this
book." Christ taught, on the contrary, that tradi-
tion was to be rejected whenever it was opposed
to Scripture. "Why do ye also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition } " " In
vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men." "Laying aside the
commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of
men." " Making the word of God of none effect
through your tradition."

2. Again. The Bible teaches us the duty of
reading and searching the Scriptures. The Lord

Paul's Foreview of Romanism. 1 2 1

Jesus Himself said, "Search the Scriptures" ; but
Romanism forbids the general reading of Scripture,
asserting that such a use of the word of God in
the vulgar tongue causes more harm than good, and
that it must never be practised except by special
permission in writing obtained from a priest. If
any presume to read it without that, they are not
to receive absolution. Booksellers who sell the
Bible to any desiring to obtain it are to have
penalties inflicted upon them, and no one is to
purchase a Bible without special license from their
superior. This is extended to receiving a gift of
the Bible.

3. The true faith teaches us that every man is
bound to judge for himself as to the meaning of
Scripture. " Prove all things, hold fast that which
IS good." " To the law and to the testimony : if
they speak not according to this word, it is because
there is no light in them." But the Council of
Trent decrees, that " no one confiding in his own
judgment shall dare to wrest the sacred Scriptures
to his own sense of them contrary to that which is
held by holy mother Church, whose right it is to
judge of the meaning." If any one disobeys this
decree he is to be punished according to law.

4. Scripture teaches us most abundantly that
Christ is the only head of the Church. God gave

122 Romanism and the Reformation.

Him to be the head over all things to the Church,
which is His body ; but Romanism teaches that the
pope IS the head of the Church on earth. " The
pope is the head of all heads, and the prince,
moderator, and pastor of the whole Church of
Christ, which is under him," says Benedict XIV. ;
and the Douay catechism, taught in all Papal
schools, says, " He who is not in due connexion
and subordination to the pope must needs be
dead, and cannot be counted a member of the
Church.'*

5. Scripture teaches us that the wages of sin is
death, and " that whoever shall keep the law, and
yet offend in one point, is guilty of all." " Cursed
is every one that continueth not in all things which
are written in the book of the law to do them."
But Popery teaches that there are some sins which
do not deserve the wrath and curse of God, and
that venial sins do not bring spiritual death to the
soul.

6. The Bible teaches us that a man is justified
by faith without the deeds of the law, and that
we are justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. But Popery
denounces this doctrine. The Council of Trent
asserted that whosoever should affirm that we are
justified by the grace and favour of God was to

PaiiVs Forevieii) of Romanism. 123

be accursed, and so all those who hold that salva-
tion is not by works but by grace.

7. Scripture teaches us to confess sin to God
only. " Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned
and done this evil in Thy sight" " Every one of
us shall give account of himself to God." "If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to for-
give us our sins.'* But Romanism denies this, and
says that sacramental confession to a priest is neces-
sary to salvation, and that any one who should
denounce the practice of secret confessions as con-
trary to the institution and command of Christ
and a mere human invention, is to be accursed.

8. Scripture teaches us, again, that God only can
forgive sins,, and that the minister's duty is simply
to announce His forgiveness. "Repentance and
remission of sins " was to be preached in His name
among all nations. "God was in Christ, recon-
ciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them ; and hath committed unto us
the word of reconciliation." He commanded us to
preach to the people, that "through His name
whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission
of sins." The Council of Trent asserts, on the
contrary, whosoever shall affirm that the priest's
absolution is not a judicial act, but only a ministry
to declare that the sins of the penitent are forgiven,

124 Romanism and the Reformation,

or that the confession of the penitent is not
necessary in order to obtain absolution from the
priest, let him be accursed.

9. Scripture teaches us that no man is perfectly
righteous, and certainly that none can do more
than his duty to God. " If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves." " In Thy sight shall no man
living be justified." " When ye shall have done
all those things which are commanded you, say.
We are unprofitable servants : we have done that
which was our duty to do." The Council of Trent,
on the contrary, asserts that the good works of the
justified man, his fasts, alms, and penances, really
deserve increase of grace and eternal life, and that
God is willing, on account of His most pious
servants, to forgive others. It teaches that a man
may do more than is requisite, and may give the
overplus of his good works to another.

10. Scripture teaches us that faith in Christ
removes sin and its guilt, " that the Lamb of God
taketh away the sin of the world," that by His
death Christ put away our sins, that " the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." But
Romanism teaches that the venial sins of believers
have to be expiated by a purgatory after death, and
that the prayers of the faithful can help them.
The Creed of Pope Pius IV. contains the clause :

Pauls Foreview of Romanism. 125

" I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and
that the souls detained therein are helped by the
suffrages of the faithful."

11. Scripture teaches us that "by one offering
He hath perfected for ever them that are sancti-
fied," that He was once offered to bear the sins of
many. But Romanism asserts, on the contrary,
that in each of the endlessly repeated masses in its
innumerable churches all over the world there is
offered to God "a true, proper, and propitiatory
sacrifice for the living and the dead."

12. Scripture, as we have already shown, teaches
us that the marriage of the ministers of Christ is
a lawful and honourable thing. Peter was a mar-
ried man ; Paul asserts his liberty to marry, and
says that a bishop must be the husband of one
wife, having his children in subjection with all
gravity, and that the deacons also must be the
husbands of one wife, ruling their children and
their own houses well. Romanism, on the other
hand, teaches "that the clergy may not marry,
and that marriage is to them a pollution."

13. Scripture says, "Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."
Barnabas and Paul with horror forbade the crowds
to worship them, and the angel similarly forbade
John, saying, " See thou do it not." Romanism

126 Romanism and the Reformatmi,

enjoins the worship both of angels and saints and
their relics. "The saints reigning together with
Christ arc to be honoured and invocated ; they
offer up prayers to God for us, and their relics
are to be venerated."

14. The Bible again teaches that images are not
to be worshipped. " Thou shalt not bow down to
them, nor serve them." " I am the Lord : My
glory will I not give to another, neither My praise
to graven images." But Romanism teaches her
votaries to say, " I most firmly assert, that the
images of Christ, and of the mother of God ever
virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had
and retained, and that due honour and veneration
are to be given to them.*'

15. And above all, Scripture teaches us that
there is one God, and one Mediator between God
and man, the Man Christ Jesus, neither is there
salvation in any other. But Romanism teaches
that there arc other mediators in abundance be-
sides Jesus Christ, that the Virgin Mary and the
saints are such. "The saints reigning together
with Christ offer prayers to God for us."

I must not go further, and contrast Bible and
Romish teachings on the subject of the Lord's
supper, extreme unction, and a multitude of other
points, but may say, in one word, that there is not

PaiiVs Foreview of Romanism. 127

a doctrine of the gospel which has not been con-
tradicted or distorted by this system, and that it
stands branded before the world beyond all ques«
tion as fulfiUing Paul's prophecy of the apostasy —
that it should be characterized by departure from
the faith.

Perhaps I cannot give you a better idea of the
distinctive teachings of Romanism as to contro-
verted points of doctrine, than by reading to you
the Creed of Pope Pius IV. This creed was
adopted at the famous Council of Trent, held in
the sixteenth century, when the doctrines of the
Reformation were already widely diffused through
Europe, and joyfully accepted and held by the
young Protestant Churches of many lands. The
Council of Trent was indeed Romes reply to t/ie
Reformation. The newly recovered truths of the
gospel were in its canons and decrees stigmatised
as pestilent heresies, and all who held them ac-
cursed ; and in opposition to them this creed was
prepared and adopted. It commences with the
Nicene Creed, which is common to Romanists and
Protestants ; but to this simple and ancient " form
of sound words " it adds twelve new articles which
are peculiar to Rome, and contain her definite
rejection of the doctrines of Scripture recovered
at the Reformation.

1 28 Romanism and the Reformation,

** I. I most firmly admit and embrace apostolical
and ecclesiastical traditions^ and all other consti-
tutions and observances of the same Church.

" 2. I also admit the sacred Scriptures according
to the sense which the holy mother Church has
held, and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge
of the true sense and interpretatioji of the Holy
Scriptures ; nor will I ever take or interpret them
otherwise than according to the unanimous con-
sent of the Fathers.

"3. I profess also, that there are truly and
properly seveyt sacraments of the new law, instituted
by Jesus Christ our Lord, and for the salvation
of mankind, though all are not necessary for every
one ; namely, baptism, confirmation, eucharist,
penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony ;
and that they confer grace ; and of these, baptism,
confirmation, and orders cannot be reiterated with-
out sacrilege.

"4. I also receive and admit the ceremonies ot
the Catholic Church received and approved in
the solemn administration of all the above said
sacraments.

" 5. I receive and embrace all and every one of
the things which have been defined and declared
in the holy Couftcil of Trent concerning original sin
and justification.

PaiiVs Foreview of Romanism. 1 29

** 6. I profess likewise that in the mass is offered
to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for
the living and the dead ; and that in the most holy
sacrifice of the eucharist there is truly, really, and
substantially the body and blood, together with the
soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and
that there is made a conversion of the whole sub-
stance of the bread into the body and of the whole
substance of the wine into the blood, which con-
version the Catholic Church calls transubstantia-
tion.

" 7. I confess also, that under either kind alone,
whole and entire Christ and a true sacrament are
received.

" 8. I constantly hold that there is a purgatory^
and that the souls detained therein are helped by
the suffrages of the faithful.

"9. Likewise that the saints reigning together
with Christ are to be honoured and invocated ;
that they offer prayers to God for us; and that
their relics are to be venerated.

" 10. I most firmly assert that the images of
Christ, and of the mother of God ever virgin, and
also of the other saints, are to be had and retained,
and that due honour and veneration are to be
given them.

" i|. I also affirm that the power of indulgences

K

130 Romamsm and the Reformation.

was left by Christ in the Church, and that the use
of them is most wholesome to Christian people.

"12. I acknowledge the holy catholic and
apostolic Roman Church, the mother and mistress
of all Churches ; and / promise ajid swear true
obedience to the Roman bishops the successor of
St. Peter, tlie prince of the apostles and vicar of
Jesus Christ,

"13. I also profess and undoubtedly receive all
other things delivered, defined, a?td declared by the
sacred canons and general councils, and partiadarly
by the holy Council of Trent ; and likewise I also
condemn, reject, and anathematize all things
contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, con*
demned, rejected, and anathematized by the
Church.

" This true catholic faith, out of which none can
be saved, which I now freely profess, and truly
hold, I, N., promise, vow, and swear most con-
stantly to hold and profess the same whole and
entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life :
and to procure, as far as lies in my power, that the
same shall be held, taught, and preached by all
who are under me, or are entrusted to my care,
by virtue of my office. So help me God, and these
holy gospels of God."

This Creed of Pope Pius IV. is the authoritative

Paul's Foreview of Romanism. 1 3 1

Papal epitome of the canons and decrees of the
Council of Trent The importance of this council
" depends upon the considerations, that its records
embody the solemn, formal, and official decision
of the Church of Rome — which claims to be the
one holy, catholic Church of Christ — upon all the
leading doctrines taught by the reformers ; that
Its decrees upon all doctrinal points are received by
all Romanists as possessed of infallible autlwrity ;
and that every Popish priest is sworn to receive^
profess, and maintain everything defined and de-
dared by itr ^

As an illustration of its reception and mainte-
nance in the present day by the infallible head
of the Romish Church, and by the whole conclave
of Roman Catholic bishops, I refer you to their
action in the comparatively recent Council of the
Vatican.

See the almost incredible spectacle of 1870!
See those seven hundred bishops of the Church
throughout the world gathered in Rome at the high
altar of St. Peter's. See them and hear them ! In
this Romish book, entitled *' The Chair of Peter,"
p. 497, is a description of the scene. " The pope
recited in a loud voice the profession of faith,

» \V. CUNNINGHAME, D.D. : " Historical Theology," vol
i.i P- 483-

132 Romanism and the Reformation,

namely the creed of Nice and Constantinople, to-
getlier with tlie definitions of the Council of Trent^
called the Creed of Pope Pius IV, ; after which it
was read aloud from the ambo by the Bishop of
Fabriano ; ' then for two whole hours/ to use the
words of one of the prelates present, *the car-
dinals, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops,
and other fathers of the council, made their adhe-
sion to the same by kissifig the Gospel at the throne oj
the head of the Church! A truly sublime spectacle,
those seven hundred bishops from all parts of the
earth, the representatives of more than thirty nations^
a7id of two hundred vtillions of Christians^ thus
openly making profession of one common faith, in
communion with the one and supreme pastor and
teacher of all ! "

Yes ; the Creed of Trent, the canons and de-
crees of Trent, the Creed of Pius IV., those twelve
articles which Rome has added to the ancient
Nicene Creed, the sacrifice of the mass, transub-
stantiation, communion in one kind, the seven
sacraments, traditions, Romish interpretation.
Popish ceremonies, justification by works, purga-
tory, invocation of saints, indulgences, the worship
of images, the absolute supremacy ot the pope as
the vicar of Christ, and no salvation out of union
and communion with him, and submission to him :

Paul's Foreview of Ronmnum. 133

they confessed and professed them all, and swore
adhesion to them, and kissed the holy Gospels in
solemn token thereof before heaven and earth.

O Creed of Pius — or Impious as he deserved
rather to be called ; O doctrines of Trent, "solemn,
formal, official" decision of the Church of Rome
upon all the great doctrines taught by the Re-
formers, Romes reply to the Reformation^ her deli-
berate final rejection and anathema of its blessed
teachings and confessions drawn from the holy
word of God ; O Creed of Trent and of the
impious priest whose word supplants the word of
God with fables and blasphemies and lies : thou
art the awful decision of apostate Latin Christen-
dom on the controversy of ages, A DECISION TO

WHICH Rome must now unchangeably ad-
here, sealed, sealed as infallible, confessed to
be irreformable 1 O momentous fact ! O fatal
Creed of Trent ! thou art a millstone round the
neck of the Roman pontiff, the cardinals, the
archbishops, the bishops, the priests, the people of
the whole Papal Church — a mighty millstone that
must sink them in destruction and perdition !
There is no shaking thee ofT. Alas! they have
doomed themselves to wear thee ; they have
wedded and bound themselves to thy deadly lies ;
they have sealed, have sworn to thee as infallible

134 Romanism and the Reformation.

and irreformable, and condemned themselves to
abide by thee for ever ! // is done. Romes last
word is 5poke7U Her fate is fixed, fixed by her
own action, her own utterance, her own oath. In-
dividuals may escape, may flee the system ; but as
a Church it is past recovery, and utterly beyond
the reach of reformation. Oh that thousands
might escape from it while yet there is time ! Oh
that they would hear the earnest, the urgent call,
"Come out of her, My people"! Oh that they
would wake from their blind and abject submission
to the tyranny of hypocrites while there is room
for repentance !

And now, in conclusion. We have shown
briefly but clearly that Romanism is the offspring
of a mystery of iniquity which began to work in
apostolic times ; that it is characterized by hypo-
crisy, by asceticism, by the prohibition of meats
and marriage, by superstition and idolatry, by the
worship of relics and images, of saints and angels,
by the multiplication of mediators, by false miracles,
by lying signs and wonders, and by doctrines and
decrees antagonistic to the teachings and com-
mands of Christ We have shown that the Papal
pontiffs have exalted themselves above all bishops,
and above all kings, that they have fabricated
new articles of faith and new rules of discipline ;

Patits Foreview of Romanism. 135

^ — ■ ■

that they have altered the terms of salvation ; that
they have sold the pardon of sins for money, and
bartered the priceless gifts of grace for selfish
gain ; that they have bound their deadly doctrines
on the souls of countless millions by monstrous
tyrannical threats and denunciations ; that they
have pertinaciously rejected the light of truth ;
that they have resolutely and wrathfully resisted
those who have rebuked their impiety ; that they
have thundered against them their bulls and inter-
dicts, their excommunications and anathemas;
that they have made war with them, and with
the faithful saints of many ages, and prevailed
against them, and worn them out with long and
cruel persecutions, with infamous and inhuman
massacres ; that they have waged against them
no less than a war of extermination^ wielding in
this the whole strength and machinery of the
resistless Roman empire, as well as the spiritual
forces of the apostate Christian Church ; that with
the mighty working of Satan^ with all power, signs,
and miracles of falsehood they have OPPOSED
Christ, have opposed His doctrines. His pre-
cepts, His people, and His cause, and in opposing
Christ have OPPOSED GOD HIMSELF, and made
war with Him who is the Lord of heaven and
earth, and have uttered against Him their dar-

136 Romanism and the Reformation.

ing prohibitions and anathemas ; that they have
enthroned themselves in His holy temple, and
trampled on His sacred laws, and trodden down
His saints and servants, and arrogated to them-
selves His place, atid power, and prerogatives ;
and while perpetrating acts of enormous and
indescribable wickedness have blasphemously
claimed to be His sole representatives both in the
Church and in the world, to be inspired by His
Spirit, to be INFALLIBLE in their teachings and
decrees, to be Vice-Christs, to be Vice-Gods — in
other words, to be AS Christ, and as God
Himself visibly revealed upon the earth.

We have further shown that prophets and
apostles foresaiv and foretold the rise, reign, and
doom of such a great apostate power, describing
it as a " little horn " of the fourth or Roman
empire, possessed of intelligence and oversight,
having a mouth speaking great things and blas-
phemies ; a power both political and ecclesiastical ;
a Roman ruler, yet an overseer in the Christian
Church ; a power arising on the break up of the
old Roman empire, and co-existing with the kings
of its divided Gothic state ; a power inspired by
Satan, and prevailing by means of false miracles
and lying wonders ; a power springing from a
"mystery of iniquity" and characterized by all

Paul's Foreviev) of Romanism. 137

deceivableness of unrighteousness ; a lawless, self-
exalting power, claiming Divine prerogatives, and
receiving from deluded millions the submission
and homage which should be rendered to God
alone ; a power characterized by exceeding per-
sonal sinfulness, and by the widespread promotion
of sin in others; above all, ^ persecuting ^owtr^ a
power making war with the saints, and wearing
them out, and prevailing against them throughout
its long career of proud usurpation and triumphant
tyranny.

These inspired words of prophecy and those
indisputable facts of history agree. The Roman
Papacy is revealed by the far-reaching light of the
divinely written word. Its portrait is painted ;
its mystery is penetrated ; its character, its deeds
are drawn ; its thousand veils and subterfuges are
torn away. The unsparing hand of inspiration
has stripped it, and left it standing upon the stage
of history deformed and naked, a dark emanation
from the pit, blood-stained and blasphemous,
blindly struggling in the concentrated rays of
celestial recognition, amid the premonitory thun-
ders and lightnings of its fast approaching doom.

LECTURE IV.

JOHN'S FO REVIEW OF ROMANISM,

T N the three preceding lectures we considered

-*• first the POLITICAL character and relations

of Romanism, as prefigured in the prophecies of

Daniel ; and next its ecclesiastical character

and relations, as predicted in the epistles of Paul.

We have now to consider the combination of
tluse two aspects^ or the politico-ecclesiastical
character of Romanism, as presented in the pro-
phecies of John.

The Apocalypse, or " Revelation of Jesus Christ,"

is an advance on all other prophecies. It gives

the complete story of Christ's kingdom, exhibiting

it both from an external and an internal point

of view, and unveiling its political as well as its

ecclesiastical history. In its faithful reflection of

the future it gives central prominence to the

Roman power and apostasy. On this subject it

enters into detail, and exhibits the mutual relations

of the Latin Church and Roman State, using com-

138

fohns Foreview of Romanism. 1 39

posite figures for this purpose, — figures one part of
which represent the political aspect of Romanism
as a temporal government, and the other its
religious aspect as an ecclesiastical system.

Two great foreviews of Romanism are given in
the Apocalypse : that concerning its rise and reign
in chapter xiii., and that relating to its declifie and
fall in chapters xvii.-xix.

Both of these prophecies are double. The first
is the prophecy of " the beast " and the " false pro-
phet " ; the second is that of " the beast " and the
" harlot." The false prophet acts for " the beast,"
the harlot rides upon " the beast." In each case
there are two powers, perfectly distinct yet closely
connected. The " beast " and " false prophet " can
neither be confounded nor separated. Similarly,
the " beast " and " harlot " are associated. The
beast carries the harlot during all her long career
of crime and cruelty, and they both come to their
ruin in the same judgment era of the vials of God's
righteous wrath which terminate the present dis-
pensation.

Before considering the interpretation of these
wonderful Apocalyptic visions, it will be necessary
to devote a few moments to the relation which
exists between the prophecies of Daniel and
those of John. We are exhibiting the prophecies

140 Romanism and the Reformation.

of Romanism as a whole, and in order to this it is
necessary to trace the simple yet profound con-
nexion between the foreview granted to the Jewish
prophet in Babylon in the days of Nebuchadnezzar
and Belshazzar, and that given to the Christian
apostle in Patmos, in the days of Domitian.

The prophecies of Daniel and the book of
Revelation may be considered as two parts of a
single prophecy; their subject is the same, and
their symbols are the same. They reveal the
course of cruel, idolatrous Gentile empires, fol-
lowed by the eternal kingdom of God ; and in
doing this they employ the same symbols. Daniel
revealed the fout empires ; John the fourth only^
for the first three had in his time passed away.
Babylon, Persia, Greece had fallen ; but Rome
was still in the zenith of its greatness, destined
to endure for many ages, and to rule, even to
our own day, a large section of the human race.
To John therefore was shown with considerable
fulness, the future of the Roman power. The
Apocalypse contains a marvellous foreview ot
the rise^ reign, decline^ and fall of t/ie Roman
Papacy^ of the sufferings and triumphs of the
saints of God during its continuance, and their
enthronement at its close.

The Roman empire is presented to Daniel and

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 141

to John under one and the same striking and
special symbol, a ten-Jtorned wild beast. Daniel
saw the Medo- Persian empire as a two-horned ram,
one horn being higher than the other (Dan. viii. 3).
He saw the Grecian empire z,s a fonr-liorned goat
(Dan. viii. 8-22) ; and he saw the Roman empire
as a ten-horned wild beast. Thus these three great
empires as seen by Daniel were two-horned^ four-
liorned^ ten-horned. This is remarkable and easy
to be remembered. Now Daniel's ten-horned
beast reappears in t/ie Apocalypse. Here we have
an important link between the Old Testament
and the New, and a clue to the meaning of the
last book of Scripture. Let us try to be clear
on this point. The four wild beasts represent
Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. The fourth is
ten-horned. This ten-horned beast of Daniel
reappears in the Apocalypse, the divinely given
symbol of the fourth and final earthly empire.
You see it in chapters xii., xiii., and xvii. of the
book of Revelation. Compare now the passages.

First, Daniel vii. 7 : " I saw in the night visions,
and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible,
and strong exceedingly; and it had ten horns!'
Next, Revelation xii. 3 : " A great red dragon,
having ten tiornsy Revelation xiii. i : " I saw a
beast rise up out of the sea, having tm /lornsJ^

142 Romanism and the Reformation.

Lastly, Revelation xvii. 3 : " A scarlet coloured
beast, having ten honisr

It IS universally admitted that this fourth, or
ten-horned beast, represents the Roman empire.
The angel himself so interprets it. I want you
particularly to notice the fact that we are not left
to speailate about the meaning of these symbols ;
that the all-wise God who selected them, and gave
them to us, has condescended to give us their
interpretation. All these principal visions are
divinely interpreted.

First, as to the vision of the fourfold image
there is an inspired interpretation of a most
detailed character. You remember the words with
which it begins, "This is the dream, and wc will
tell the interpretation thereof before the king."

Then in the vision of the four wild beasts there
is the interpretation beginning thus, " So he told
me, and made me know the interpretation of the
things." So with the vision of the second and
third empires in Daniel viii., there is the interpre-
tation. Daniel says : " I heard a man's voice
• . . which called, and said, Gabriel, make this
man to understand the vision," and so forth.

The same method is followed in the Apocalypse.
The opening vision of the seven candlesticks is
interpreted. You remember the words, *'The

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 143

seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven
Churches." And similarly, the vision of the woman
seated on the seven-headed, ten-horned beast, in
chapter xvii., is interpreted : every part of it is
interpreted. Observe the angel's words : " I will
tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the
beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads
and ten horns." Mark in your Bibles, if you
will, these four sentences in the angelic interpre-
tation :

" The beast which thou sawest."

" The ten horns which thou sawest.**
The waters which thou sawest."

" The woman which thou sawest.**

These four sentences are the key to the Apo-
calypse. The beast, the horns, the waters, the
woman are all interpreted; and their interpretation
involves, or carries in it, the interpretation of the
Apocalypse. The seven heads of the beast are
also interpreted, and so interpreted as to tie down
the symbol to the ROMAN empire. For the angel
mentions an important note of time ; he says of
the seven heads, " five are fallen, and ONE is, and
the other is not yet come.*' The heads of this
beast then, when the vision was revealed, were
past, present, and future ; five were past, the sixth
then existed, the seventh was not yet come. This

144 Romanism and the Reformation,

demonstrates the power in question to be the
Roman empire. The then reigning power in
John's day was symbolized by the sixth head of
a seven-headed beast. This is certain. And the
then reigning power was that of the Caesars of
pagan Rome. This is equally certain. Therefore
the Roman Caesars were represented by the sixth
head of the symbolic beast. Now, to make assu-
rance doubly sure, mark the closing sentence in
the angelic interpretation : " The woman which
thou sawest is that city which reigneth over the
kings of the earth." Note the words, "which
reigneth" (jJ e^ovaa jSaaiXeiav), or as it is in
Latin, **gucB habet regiiumy The words in the
Vulgate are, " Et mulier quam vidisti, est civitas
magna, quae tiabet regiium super reges terrae " :
"and the woman which thou sawest is the great
city which has (or holds) the kingdom (or govern-
ment) over the kings of the earth." The great city
" which reigneth," not which did reign, nor which
shall reign, but *' which reigneth]' or was actually
reigning then. What great city was reigning then
over the kings of the earth } Rome^ and none
other. Rome then is the power which is signified.
We have now got the KEY to the Apocalypse ;
we are no longer lost in a crowd of uninterpreted
symbols. The beasts of Daniel and John are

Johns Foreview of Ronianisnu 145

empires. The ten-horned beast is the Roman
power. This beast appears three times in the
Apocalypse ; it is expounded by the angel. This
expounded symbol is the key to the entire
prophecy.

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast
rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns,
and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the
name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like
unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion : and the dragon
gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And
I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death ; and
his deadly wound was healed : and all the world wondered
after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon that gave
power unto the beast ; and they worshipped the beast, say-
ing, Who is like unto the beast ? who is able to make war
with him ? And there was given unto him a mouth speak-
ing great things and blasphemies ; and power was given
unto him to continue forty and two months. And he
opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme
His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in
heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the
saints, and to overcome them : and power was given him
over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that
dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are
not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world."

The head is the governing power in the body.
The heads of this beast represent successive
governments. Mark the '^deadly wound*^ inflicted

L

146 Romanism and the Reformation,

on the last of its seven heads, and the marvellous
healing of that wound, or the revival of the slain
head or government, then mark the tyrannical
and dreadful doings of this revived or eighth head.
It becomes a great and terrible enemy of God's
people, a Roman enemy — not an early Roman
enemy, not a pagan Caesar, not a Nero or a
Domitian, but one occupying a later place, a final
place; for none succeeds him in that empire,
since it is foretold that his destruction will be
accomplished at the advent of Christ in His
kingdom.

A comparison of this Roman enemy of God's
people described by John with the " little horn "
foreshown by Daniel, demonstrates the important
fact of their identity. They arc one and the same.
Observe the following points :

I. The persecuting horn seen by Daniel is a
horn of the Roman empire ; it is a Roman horn.
And the persecuting head seen by John is a head
of the Roman beast. In this they are alike. Each
is Roman.

II. The persecuting horn grows up in the later,
or divided state of the Roman empire ; it rises
among the ten Gothic horns. The persecuting
head seen by John also grows up in the same
later state of the Roman empire, for it follows the

Johfis Foreview of Romanism. 147

seven heads, and is the last. The sixth was said
by the angel to be in existence in John's time,
and the seventh was to last only a short season, —
be wounded to death, and then revived in a new
and final and peculiarly tyrannical and persecuting
form. The "little horn " in Daniel belongs to the
later ten-horned, or Gothic, period of the Roman
empire ; and the revived Iiead of the empire seen
by John belongs to the same period. You will
note this point — their period is the same. This
is a second mark of their identity.

III. Each has a mouth. Now here is a very
distinct and remarkable feature. The other horns
and heads were dumb ; but this speaks. Of the
persecuting Roman horn we read in Daniel, it had
" a mouth " ; and of the persecuting Roman head
we read in John, "there was given unto him a
mouth."

IV. In each case this mouth speaks the sanu
things. Of the mouth of the Roman horn Daniel
says, in chapter vii., " it spake great things " (7*. 8),
" the great words which the horn spake " (2/. 1 1),
" very great things " {v. 20), " great words against
the Most High" (2/. 25). While of the Roman
head in the Apocalypse John says : " There was
given unto him a mouth speaking great things
and blasphemies. . . • And he opened his

148 Ronuinism and the Reformation,

mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme
His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell
in heaven " (Rev. xiii. 6). The horn speaks ; the
head speaks : each speaks great things ; each
speaks blasphemies. This striking correspondence
is a further indication of their identity. Each has

arofxa \akovv fi€yaXa (Dan. vii. 8).
aTOfia \d\ovv fieyaXa (Rev. xiii. 5)«

The expression is exactly the same in the Scp-
tuagint translation of Daniel and in the Apo-
calypse.

V. The /torn has great dominion. It plucks up
three horns ; it has " a look more stout than his
fellows" (v, 20), it makes war and prevails; its
great " dominion " is eventually taken away and
destroyed : " they shall take away his dominion "
{v. 26). Similarly the licad has great dominion ;
"power was given him over all kindreds and
tongues and nations." The application of these
words should not be pressed beyond the sphere to
which they belong. In that sphere, for a certain
period, the power of the horn or head was to
be supreme and universal. In the fact of their
dominion they are alike.

VI. Each makes war with the saints: each is
terrible as a persecutor of God's people. Daniel

Johtis Foreview of Romanism, 1 49

says : " The same horn made war with the saints,
and prevailed against them. . . . He shall
wear out the saints of the Most High. . .
They shall be given into his hand until a time, and
times, and the dividing of time." John says : " It
was given unto him to make war with the saints
and to overcome them " (Rev. xiii. 7) ; " He shall
make war against them, and shall overcome them,
and kill them " (Rev. xi. 7). John describes the
method of this warfare, in what way and for
what reason the "saints" or "martyrs of Jesus"
"should be killed" (Rev. xiii. 15); and it is of
these martyrs the voice from heaven says, " Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord from hence-
forth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest
from their labours ; and their works do follow
them" (Rev. xiv. 13). In their persecution of the
saints Daniel's "horn" and John's revived "head"
are alike.

VII. The duration of each is the same. This
too is a noteworthy feature. The duration of the
persecuting horn is mystically stated in Daniel as
" time, times, and the dividing of time," or three
and a half times (Dan. vii. 25). And the duration
of the persecuting head in the Apocalypse is stated
to be forty-two months. " Power was given unto
him to continue forty and two months" (Rev.

150 Romanism and the Reformation,

xiii. 5). And these are the same period. This will
appear from a comparison of the seven passages
in which this period occurs in Daniel and the
Apocalypse ; in these it is called 1,260 days, forty-
two months, and three and a half times. Now
1,260 days are forty-two months, and forty-two
months are three and a half years. What these
symbolic periods represent is another question ;
our point here is their identity. The persecuting
horn and persecuting head are exactly the same
in their duration. This is another proof of the
sameness of the reality they represent.

VIII. They end in the same manner and at the
same time. This completes the evidence of their
identity. The persecuting Jiorn is slain by the
Ancient of days revealed in judgment, and the
glory of His kingdom (Dan. vii. 9-1 1, 22). The
persecuting head is slain by the "King of kings
and Lord of lords " revealed in that judgment in
which He treads the winepress of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. The judgment is
the same (Rev. xix. 11, 20). The "little horn"
and revived " head " then are alike in place, time,
character, authority, persecuting action, duration,
and doom. They arise at the same point; they
last the same period ; they do the same deeds ;
they come to their end at the same moment, and

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 151

by the same revelation of Christ in the glory of
His kingdom. They cannot prefigure two powers
absolutely alike in all these respects; but one
and tJie same. Even the Church of Rome admits
their identity. It teaches that both are symbols
of the same great persecuting power.

The way is now clear to consider the interpret
tation of this prophecy. It is indeed determined
already by this very identification. The little
horn of Daniel prefigures, as we have proved
before, the Papacy of Rome. So then does this
revived head. We will examine briefly the evi-
dences which sustain this conclusion ; but as we
have already sketched the history, we need not
dwell at any length on the different points. We
will take the prophetic features in the order in
which we have already presented them, considering
first the facts relating to the rise^ and then those
concerning the reign^ of the power in question.

First then as to its rise. The predicted head
rises from the Roman empire. It is therefore
Roman. So is the Papacy. We have called the
system which owns the pope as head Romanism^
because its seat is the seven-hilled city.

Secondly, the predicted persecuting power grows
up in the second stage of Roman history. It is the
seventh or last head of the old empire revived.

152 Romanism and the Reformation.

Now this is the exact position of the Papacy.
The Papacy belongs to the second or Christian
stage of the Roman empire. It grew up among
its Gothic horns or kingdoms. It was the revival
of a power which had been slain. When the
pagan empire was overthrown the Papal rose in
its place. First the Caesars ruled in Rome, then
the popes. The Goths overthrew the Roman
empire in the fifth century ; Romulus Augustulus
abdicated the imperial dignity in A.D. 476. This
was the " deadly wound " of the seventh head.
From that date the Papacy grew with freedom,
grew up among the Gothic horns or kingdoms.
Note this feature — the Papacy belongs to the
second or Christian stage of the Roman empire.
It was a horn among the Gothic horns. It was
a revived head. The power of the Caesars lived
again in the universal dominion of the popes.

The Papacy was small at its beginning, but
grew to great dominion ; it exercised as wide
a sway as the Caesars it succeeded ; all Europe
submitted to its rule ; it claimed, and still claims,
a power without a rival or a limit Hallam, as
we have already remarked, says of the thirteenth
century, the noonday of Papal power: ^^Rome in-
spired during this age all the terror of her ancient
name. She was once more mistress of the world,

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 153

and kings were her vassals"^ Remember the
proud title taken by the popes, rector orbis — ruler
of the world. In this also the Papacy fulfils the
prophecy.

Observe, secondly^ that extraordinary feature
both in Daniel and the Apocalypse, the mouth
of this power. Both the horn, in Daniel, and the
head, in John, has a mouth, aro^ia XoKovv fieydXa
— " a mouth speaking great things." This feature
is marvellously fulfilled in 'the Papacy. What
a mouth has that Latin ruler! What a talker!
what a teacher ! what a thunderer 1 How has
he boasted himself and magnified himself, and
excommunicated and anathematized all who have
resisted him ? Has the world ever seen his equal
in this respect? All the Gothic kings were his
humble servants. He was, by his own account,
and is, the representative of Christ, of God, ruler
of the world, armed with all the powers of Christ
in heaven, earth, and hell. He is infallible ; his
decrees are irreformable. A mouth indeed is
his, a mouth speaking great things !

Notice, in the third place, his warring with the
saints. In the Apocalypse we read, " It was given
to him to make war with the saints, and to

' Hallam : "History of the Middle Ages,** Fourth Edit,
p. 368.

54 Romanism and the Rejormation,

overcome them." I will not do more here than
remind you of the fact that, terribly as the saints
suffered under the Caesars of pagan Rome, they
suffered far more terribly and far longer under
Papal Rome. Let the massacres of the Albi-
genses, the Waldenses, the Hussites, the Lollards,
the massacres in Holland and the Netherlands,
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the massacre in
Ireland in 1641, the tortures of the Inquisition,
the fires of the stake kindled over and over in
every country in Europe — let these speak and
testify to the fulfilment of prophecy. Yes ; the
Papacy has made war with the saints, and over-
come them, and worn them out, and would have
totally crushed and annihilated them, but for the
sustaining hand and reviving power of God. In
its prolonged, cruel, and universal persecution of
the saints, the Papacy has fulfilled this solemn
prophecy.

Notice, in ih^ fourth place, the predicted duration
of this persecuting power. Daniel mysteriously
announces its duration as three and a half times ;
John as forty-two months. The symbolical nature
of the prophecy, as well as the vastncss of the
subject, forbid us to take these times literally.
As the beast is symbolic, and its various parts
symbolic, so the period of its persecuting head

fohns Foreview of Romanism. 155

is symbolic. You find this period mentioned
seven times over in Daniel and Revelation, and
called 1,260 days, forty-two months, and also three
and a half " times." These are, as we have said,
the same period. Calculate for yourself, and you
will find it so. Now, both in the law and prophets^
a day is used as the symbol of a year. Moses,
Ezekiel, Daniel use it thus. The seventy weeks
of Daniel, or 490 days to Messiah, were fulfilled
as 490 years ; that is, they were fulfilled on the
year-day scale. On this scale the forty-two
months, or 1,260 days, are 1,260 years. We ask
then, Has the Papacy endured this period ? An
examination of the facts of history will show that
it has. From the era of its rise in the sixth
century, at the notable decree of the emperor
Justinian^ constituting the Bishop of Rome head
of all the Churches in Christendom, A.D. 533, 1,260
years extended to 1793, the date of the tremen-
dous Papal overthrow in the French Revolution,
Here we have a fact of great importance. Note
it well. To this we add the further fact, that from
the analogous decree of the emperor Phocas, con-
firming the headship of the pope over Christendom,
in the year 607, 1,260 years extended to 1866-7,
the initial date of the recent remarkable overthrow
of Papal governments which culminated in the

156 Romanism and the Reformation.

loss of the pope's temporal power in 1870. In
that year the Papacy assumed the highest exalta-
tion to which it could aspire, that of infallibility,
and lost the temporal sovereignty, which it had
held for more than a thousand years. Thus the
predicted period has been fulfilled. What an
evidence is this ! The Papacy has fulfilled the
prophecy, not only in its geographical and his-
torical position, its moral character, its political
power, its blasphemous pretensions, its tyrannical
career, but in its very chronology, — in the point
of its rise, the period of its duration, the era of
its decline, the crisis of its overthrow.

We have already directed your attention to the
fact that the Papacy is a complex power, and re-
quires complex symbols for its prefiguration. It is
both a seadar and an ecclesiastical power ; and the
ecclesiastical power has arrogated to itself the
right to create the secular, or endow it with Divine
authority, and has also wielded the energies of
the secular power in pursuance of its own unholy
ends.

Revelation xiii. represents both these organiza-
tions as "beasts." The one is represented as a
ten-homedy the other aS a two-horned beast. The
former rises, as does each of the beasts of Daniel,
from the sea; the latter rises from the earth.

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 1 5 7

The one springs up in storm, the other in still-
ness. Striving and warring winds attend the
birth of the one; the other grows up quietly
from a low, terrestrial origin, like an ivy plant
or a noxious, earth-born weed. The ten horns
of the one are strong iron kingdoms ; the two
horns of the other are gentle and lamb-like.
The two beasts stand side by side ; they act
together in everything. The earth-born beast is
the " prophet " of the sea-born beast, and he is a
"false prophet" He compels subjection to the
secular power, especially to its new head, that head
which had been slain and /lealed. He establishes
an idolatrous worship of that head, or a submission
to it as Divine in authority. He " exercises " all
the power of the ten-horned beast in his warfare
against the saints and servants of God. He works
false miracles, and accomplishes lying wonders,
and even brings down fire upon earth in imitation
of the prophets of the Lord ; that is, he causes
iudgmeyits to descend on those who resist He
uses the instrument of excommunication, a weapon
of celestial authority, and wields it with terrible
effect. He lays kingdoms under interdicts, and
nations under anathemas. He makes idolatry
compulsory, delivering to the secular arm all who
refuse to render it, that they may be /;// to death.

158 Roviafiism and the Reformation.

He prohibits all dealings with so called "heretics,"
all traffic and communion with them. He allows
none to buy from them^ and none to sell to them.
He institutes the system which is now called " boy-
cottiiigl' a system of persecution which was freely
wielded by the Popish priesthood in the middle
ages, and is still employed, as we know, in certain
Papal lands.

How could the mutual relations of the political
and ecclesiastical powers in the apostate Roman
empire be better represented than by these wonder-
ful symbols ? Here are a monarchy and a priest-
hood in close, nefarious association ; the priesthood
anoints the monarchy, serves it, uses it. Together
they rule, and together they persecute. No symbol
can represent everything, no parable can corre-
spond in all respects with the reality it depicts.
It is surely enough if the principal features and
primary relations are exhibited in the symbol, or
reflected by the parable. This is just what is done
in the apocalyptic prophecy. Look at the facts.
The Papacy has been a political power for more
than a thousand years. The popes of Rome have
been secular monarchs. They have possessed
territories, levied taxes, laid down laws, owned
armies, made wars. The Papal monarchy has
been for ages an integral part of the Roman empire.

fohfis Foreview of Roniamsm. 159

The Papacy has also been a sacerdotal power^ and
is so still. While its temporal government has
fallen, its spiritual remains. Further, the Papacy
is served by an extensive sacerdotal organization^
embracing about a thousand bisJiops and Jialf a
million of priests. This organization controls the
convictions and actions of two hundred millions of
persons, belonging to more than thirty nations.
If the best symbol to represent the Roman empire
with its rulers be a ten-horned beast, what better
symbol to represent the Papal hierarchy than a
two-horned beast, whose horns are like those 01
a lamb, while it has the voice of a dragon ? And
what better name for that hierarchy could be found
than the " false prophet " ? Does it not pretend
to utter the messages of heaven ? And as Moses
and Elijah called down the fire of God's judgments
on the enemies of Israel, has not this hierarchy
brought down again and again, in the estimation
of millions, the judgments of God on those who
have resisted its will, whether individuals or
nations ? Has not this been one of its most
tremendous and irresistible weapons } Read the
history of the middle ages and of the sixteenth
century. What nation in Europe has not been
laid from time to time under Papal interdicts, and
compelled by these means to submit to the deci-

i6o Romanism and the Reformation,

sions of the Roman pontiff? And has not the
priesthood too been the author and instigator of
a wholesale system of idolatry and persecution ?
Has it not employed the power of the State in en-
forcing idolatry, and cruelly persecuted to death
millions of the faithful who would not bow the
knee to the modern Baal ? In all this history
only too faithfully corresponds to prophecy. Deep
calls to deep, and the utterances of inspiration
are caught up and echoed by the experience of
generations. The voices of the prophets come
back in thunder from the course of ages, and the
proof that God has spoken reverberates through-
out the world.

Having briefly considered John's prophecy con-
cerning the rise and reign of the Papal power,
we have now to glance at his prediction of its fall
and overthrow. This you will find in Revelation
xviL-xix. We have not time to read these
chapters now ; you are doubtless familiar with
them, and will do well to study them carefully
and. thoroughly. They contain the second com-
plex or duplicate prophecy concerning Romanism
— the career and judgment of "Babylon the
Great."

In this prophecy John beholds the ten-horned
BEAST representing the Roman empire bearing a

Johns Foreview of Romanism. i6i

mystical WOMAN, dressed in purple and scarlet,
decked with gold, precious stones, and pearls ; a
harlot, and the mother of harlots and abomina-
tions, the guilty paramour of kings, the cruel
persecutor of saints ; intoxicated, but not with
wine— drunken with the blood of the saints and
of the martyrs of Jesus. What a vision ! what
a prophecy !

You remember the angel's interpretation of this
vision : " The woman which thou sawest is that
great city which reigneth over the kings of the
earth." We showed that that city was Rome,
indisputably Rome. That Babylon the Great
means Rome is admitted by Romanists them-
selves. Cardinal Bellarmine says that ^* Rome is
signified in t/te Apocalypse by the name of Babylon,^*
Cardinal Baronius admits that " all persons confess
tJiat Rome is denoted by the name of Babylofi in t/te
Apocalypse of fohi^ Bossuet observes that "//^
features are so marked^ that it is easy to decip/ut
Rome under tlu figure of Babylon " (Rome sous
la figure de Babylone), But, while admitting
that Babylon the Great, seated on the seven hills,
means Rome, Papal interpreters assert that it
means heathen Rome, and not Christian Rome —
the Rome of the Caesars, and not that of the popes.

In reply to this, we answer, ^rr/, that the name

M

1 62 Romanism and the Reformation.

upon the harlot's brow is " mystery,'^ and that
heathen Rome was no mystery. The true char-
acter of heathen Rome was never concealed. On
the other hand, Christian Rome is a " mystery " ;
it is not what it seems. In profession, it is Divine ;
in character, satanic.

We say, in the second place, that there is a
marked and intentional contrast in the Apocalypse
between the two cities Babylon and Jerusalem,
which is overlooked by the Papal interpretation.
Babylon, in the Apocalypse, is a city and a harlot ;
Jerusalem, in the same book, is a city and a bride.
The former is the corrupt associate of earthly
kings ; the latter, the chaste bride of the heavenly
King. But the latter is a Church; the former then
is no mere heathen metropolis. The contrast is
between Church and Church ; the faithful Church
and the apostate Church.

In the ////replace, we point to the fact that the
judgment described in Revelation xviii, falls on
Babylon when her sifts had readied to heaven ; that
is, in the darkest part of her career. But when
Alaric destroyed Rome in A.D. 410 that city had
improved, it had become Christian ; it was purified
at that time from its pagan idolatries. Nor had
it then sunk into the darkness of the Papacy. It
was not in the fifth century that Rome reached

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 163

the utmost height of her iniquity. The capture of
the city by the soldiers of Alaric, when it was
neither pagan nor Papal, could not have been the
judgment here foretold.

In t\iQ fourth place, we point to the fact that the
destruction of Babylon foretold in the Apocalypse
is total and final; as a great "mill-stone" she is
plunged into the deep ; there is no recovery. This
cannot refer to the mere burning of Rome in A.D.
410, for that event was speedily followed by the
complete restoration of the city. When the Baby-
lon of Revelation xviii. falls the smoke of its burn-
ing goes up for ever ; it is found no more at all.

In the fifth place, we point to the fact that the
foretold destruction of Babylon is accomplished by
the horns or governments which were previously
subject to her rule. We freely admit that the
Goths destroyed ancient Rome, but the Goths
were not previously subject to Rome. The Gothic
nations did not first submit to Rome obediently,
and then cast her off, and rend, and trample, and
destroy her. All this however these nations did
in the case of Papal Rome. For centuries they
were subject to her sway ; then they cast her ofT.
Look at the French Revolution ; see the deeds of
France. Look at Italy in 1870. See the Conti-
nent to-day.

164 Romanism and llie Reformation,

In the sixth place, we point to the fact that the
foretold destruction of Babylon is immediately to
be folloYired by " the marriage of the Lamb." This
is clearly vforetold in Revelation xix. But the cap-
ture of Rome by Alaric was not followed by that
event Alaric captured Rome fifteen centuries ago,
while the marriage of the Lamb is still future.
This utterly excludes the notion that the destruc-
tion of Rome by Alaric is the judgment intended,
and that Babylon the Great represents pagan
Rome. And as Babylon the Great does not
represent Rome pagan, it must represent Rome
Papal ; there is no other alternative.

Now, in conclusion, read this wonderful pro-
phecy concerning " Babylon the Great " in the clear
and all-revealing light of history, I ask those of
you who have read the history of the last eighteen
centuries, did not Rome Christian become a har-
lot } Did not Papal Rome ally itself with the
kings of the earth ? Did it not glorify itself to be
as a queen, and call itself the Mistress of the
World ? Did it not ride upon the body of the
beast, or fourth empire, and govern its actions for
centuries ? Did not Papal Rome array itself in
purple and scarlet, and deck itself with gold and
precious stones and pearls } Is not this its attire
still ? We appeal to facts. Go to the churches

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 165

and see. Look at the priests; look at the car-
dinals ; look at the popes ; look at the purple
robes they wear ; look at their scarlet robes ; see
the encrusted jewels ; look at the luxurious palaces
in which they live ; look at the eleven thousand
halls and chambers in the Vatican, and the un-
bounded wealth and glory gathered there ; look
at the gorgeous spectacles in St. Peter's at Rome,
casting even the magnificence of royalty into the
shade. Go and see these things, or read the testi-
mony of those who have seen them. Shamelessly
Rome wears the very raiment, the very hues and
colours, portrayed on the pages of inspired pro-
phecy. You may know the harlot by her attire,
as certainly as by the name upon her brow.

But to come to the darkest feature. Has not
the Church of Rome drunk most abundantly the
precious blood of saints and martyrs ? We appeal
to facts. What of the Albigenses in the thirteenth
century ? What of the Waldenses from the
thirteenth century on to the time of Cromwell and
the commonwealth } You have not forgotten
Milton's poem about them, those memorable lines.
And what of the persecutions of Protestants in
France, those dreadful persecutions mercilessly
continued for more than three hundred years?
What of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and

1 66 Romanism and the Reformation.

the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ? What
of the fires of Smithfield ? What of the terrible
Inquisition ?

Stay, I will take you to the Inquisition. You
shall enter its gloomy portals ; you shall walk
through its dark passages ; you shall stand in its
infernal torture-chamber ; you shall hear the cries
of some of its victims ; you shall listen to their
very words. What agonies have been suffered
in these sombre vaults, unseen by any human
eyes save those of fiendish inquisitors! What
cries have been uttered in this dismal place which
have never reached the open world in which we
live. Locked doors shut them in ; stone walls
stifled them. No sound escaped, not even that ot
a faint and distant moan. But now and then a
victim found release ; one and another have come
forth from the torture-chamber pale and trembling,
maimed and mutilated, to tell the things they
experienced when in the hands of the holy in-
quisitors. We shall call in some of these as
witnesses.

This book is Limborclis " History of the Inquisi-
tion." It tells the story of its origin seven hundred
years ago, and of its establishment and progress
in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Sicily,
Sardinia, Germany, Holland, and other parts of

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 167

the world ; it describes its ministers and methods,
its vicars, assistants, notaries, judges, and other
officials ; it describes the power of the inquisitors,
and their manner of proceeding. It unveils their
dread tribunal ; opens their blood-stained records ;
describes their dungeons, the secret tortures they
inflicted, the extreme, merciless, unmitigated tor-
tures, and also the public so called " acts of faith,"
or burning of heretics. What a record ! What a
world of tyranny and intolerable anguish com-
pressed into that one word — the Inquisition !
Tyranny over the conscience ! Men in the name
of Jesus Christ stretching and straining, maiming
and mangling their fellow men, to compel them to
call light darkness, and darkness light ; to call the
Gospel of Christ a lie, and the lie of Satan truth ;
to confess that wrong is right, and acknowledge
right is wrong ; to bow down to man and worship
him as God ; to call the teachings of Christ heresy,
and the teachings of antichrist Divine ! Tremen-
dous was the power of that dread tribunal. In
Spain and Portugal it completely crushed the
Reformation. No secrets could be withheld from
the inquisitors ; hundreds of persons were often
apprehended in one day, and in consequence of
information resulting from their examinations
under torture, thousands more were apprehended.

1 68 Romanism and the Reformatio7i.

Prisons, convents, even private houses, were
crowded with victims ; the cells of the inquisition
were filled and emptied again and again ; its tor-
ture-chamber was a hell. The most excruciating
engines were employed to dislocate the limbs of
even tender women. Thousands were burned at
the stake. The gospel was gagged and crushed,
and Christ Himself in the persons of His members
subjected to the anguish of a second Golgotha.

Let us look into the chamber of horrors in the
Spanish Inquisition. "The place of torture," says
a Spanish historian, quoted by Limborch, p. 217,
"the place of torture in the Spanish Inquisition
is generally an underground and very dark room,
to which one enters through several doors. There
is a tribunal erected in it in which the in-
quisitor, inspector, and secretary sit. When the
candles are lighted, and the person to be tortured
brought in, the executioner, who is waiting for him,
makes an astonishing and dreadful appearance.
He is covered all over with a black linen garment
down to his feet, and tied close to his body. His
head and face are all concealed with a long black
cowl, only two little holes being left in it for him
to see through. All this is intended to strike the
miserable wretch with greater terror in mind and
body, when he sees himself going to be tortured by

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 1 69

the hands of one who thus looks like the very
devil."

The degrees of torture are described by Julius
Clarus and other writers quoted by Limborch.
They were various, and included the following :

1. The being threatened to be tortured.

2. Being carried to the place of torture.

3. The stripping and binding.

4. The being hoisted up on the rack.

5. What they called " squassation,"

This was the torture of the pulley. Besides
this there was the torture of the fite^ or chafing-
dish full of burning charcoal applied to the soles
of the feet Then there was the torture of the
rack, and of another instrument called by the
Spaniards " escalero " ; then that of the pouring
water into a bag of linen stuffed down the throat ;
and that of iron dice forced into the feet by screws;
and of cajies placed crosswise between the fingers,
and so compressed as to produce intolerable pain ;
then the torture of cords drawn tightly round
various parts of the body, cutting through the
flesh ; and of the machine in which the sufferer
was fixed head downwards ; and, lastly, the tor-
ture of red-hot irons applied to the breasts and
sides till they burned to the bone.

Here, on p. 219, is the account of the stripping

170 Romanism and i/ie Reformatiojt.

of victims, men and zvomeUf preparatory to tor-
ture ; the stripping from them of every vestige of
clothing by these holy inquisitors, and how they
put on them short linen drawers, leaving all the
rest of the body naked for the free action of the
tormentors. Here, on page 221, is the account by
Isaac Orobio of what he suffered when in their
hands. It was towards evening, he says when he
was brought to the place of torture in the Inquisi-
tion. It was a large, underground room, arched,
and the walls covered with black hangings. The
candlesticks were fastened to the wall, and the
whole room enlightened with candles placed in
them. At one end of it there was an inclosed
place like a closet, where the inquisitor and notary
sat at a table ; so that the place seemed to him as
the very mansion of death, everything appearing
so terrible and awful. Then the inquisitor admo-
nished him to confess the truth before his torments
began. When he answered that he had told the
truth, the inquisitor gravely protested that since he
was so obstinate as to suffer the torture, the holy
office would be imiocent (what exquisite hypocrisy !)
if he should even expire in his torments. When
he had said this, they put a linen garment over his
body, and drew it so very close on each side as
almost squeezed him to death. When he was

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 171

almost dying, they slackened all at once the sides
of the garment, and, after he began to breathe
again, the sudden alteration put him to the most
grievous anguish and pain. When he had over-
come this torture, the same admonition was re-
peated, that he would confess the truth in order to
prevent further torment. As he persisted in his
denial, they tied his thumbs so very tight with
small cords as made the extremities of them
greatly swell, and caused the blood to spurt out
rom under his nails. After this he was placed with
his back against a wall and fixed upon a bench ;
into the wall were fastened iron pulleys, through
which there were ropes drawn and tied round
his arms and legs in several places. The execu-
tioner, drawing these ropes with great violence,
fastened his body with them to the wall, his arms
and legs, and especially his fingers and toes, being
bound so tightly as to put him to the most exqui-
site pain, so that it seemed to him just as though
he was dissolving in flames. After this a new kind
of torture succeeded. There was an instrument
like a small ladder, made of two upright pieces
of wood and five cross ones sharpened in front
This the torturer placed over against him, and by
a single motion struck it with great violence
against both his shins, so that he received upon

172 Romanism and the Reformation,

each of them at once five violent strokes, which put
him to such intolerable anguish that he fainted
away. After this he came to himself, and they
inflicted on him a further torture. The torturer
tied ropes about Orobio's wrists, and then put
these ropes about his own back, which was coverca
with leatlur to prevent his hurting himself ; then
falling backwards he drew the ropes with all his
might till they cut through Orobio's flesh, even to
the very bones. And this torture was repeated
* twice, the ropes being tied about his arms at the
distance of two fingers* breadth from the former
wound, and drawn with the same violence. On
this the physician and surgeon were sent for out
of the neighbouring apartment to ask whether
the torture could be continued without danger
of death. As there was a prospect of his living
through it, the torture was then repeated, after
which he was bound up in his own clothes and
carried back to his prison. Here, opposite to this
recital, is a picture representing these various
tortures. After prolonged imprisonment, Orobio
was released and banished from the kingdom of
Seville.

Before we let fall the curtain upon this awful
subject, let us listen for a moment to some of
the words of William Lithgozv^ a Scotchman, who

Johns Foreview of Romanism. 173

suffered the tortures of the Inquisition in the time
of James I. After telling of the diabolical treat-
ment he received, which was very similar to that I
have just described, he says, " Now mine eyes did
begin to startUy my mouth to foam and froth, and
my teeth to chatter like the dohhling of drumsticks.
Oh^ strange, inhuman, monster man-manglers I
. . . And notwithstanding of my shivering lips
in this fiery passion, my vehement groaning, and
blood springing from my arms, my broken sinews,
yea, and my depending weight on flesh-cutting
cords, yet they struck me on the face with cudgels
to abate and cease the thundering noise of my
wrestling voice. At last, being released from these
pinnacles of pain, I was handfast set on the floor
with this their ceaseless imploration: 'Confess,
confess, confess in time, or thine inevitable tor-
ments ensue.* Where, finding nothing from me
but still innocent, — ' Oh ! I am innocent. O Jesus,
the Lamb of God, have mercy on me, and
strengthen me with patience to undergo this
barbarous murder — ' "

Enough ! Here let the curtain drop. I should
sicken you were I to pursue the subject further ;
it is too horrible, too damnable.

Here in this paper I have some of the ashes oj
the martyrs, some of their burned bones. I have

174 Romanism and the Reformation,

bits of rusted iron and melted lead which I took
myself with these hands from the Quemadero in
Madrid, the place where they burned the martyrs,
not far from the Inquisition. It was in the year
1870 that I visited it, just before the great oecu-
menical council was held at Rome, by which the
pope was proclaimed infallible. I was in Spain
that spring, and visited the newly opened Quema-
dero. I saw the ashes of the martyrs. I carried
away with me some relics from that spot, which
are now lying upon this table.

Hear me, though in truth I scarcely know how
to speak upon this subject. I am almost dumb
with horror when I think of it. I have visited the
places in Spain, in France, in Italy most deeply
stained and dyed with martyr-blood. I have
visited the valleys of Piedmont. I have stood in
the shadow of the great cathedral of Seville, on
the spot where they burned the martyrs or tore
them limb from limb. I have stood breast-deep
in the ashes of the martyrs of Madrid. I have
read the story of Rome's deeds. I have waded
through many volumes of history and of martyro-
logy. I have visited, either in travel or in thought,
scenes too numerous for me to name, where the
saints of God have been slaughtered by Papal
Rome, that great butcher of bodies and of souls.

fohfis Foreview of Romanism. 175

I cannot tell you what I have seen, what I have
read, what I have thought. I cannot tell you what
I feel. Oh, it is a bloody tale ! I have stood in
that valley of Lucerna where dwelt the faithful
Waldenses, those ancient Protestants who held to
the pure gospel all through the dark ages, that
lovely valley with its pine-clad slopes which Rome
converted into a slaughter-house. Oh, horrible
massacres of gentle, unoffending, noble-minded
men ! Oh, horrible massacres of tender women
and helpless children ! Yes ; ye hated them, ye
hunted them, ye trapped them, ye tortured them,
ye stabbed them, ye stuck them on spits, ye im-
paled them, ye hanged them, ye roasted them, ye
flayed them, ye cut them in pieces, ye violated
them, ye violated the women, ye violated the
children, ye forced flints into them, and stakes,
and stuffed them with gunpowder, and blew them
up, and tore them asunder limb from limb, and
tossed them over precipices, and dashed them
against the rocks ; ye cut them up alive, ye dis-
membered them ; ye racked, mutilated, burned,
tortured, mangled, massacred holy men, sainted
women, mothers, daughters, tender children, harm-
less babes, hundreds, thousands, thousands upon
thousands; ye sacrificed them in heaps, in heca-
tombs, turning all Spain, Italy, France, Europe,

176 Romanism and the Reformation,

Christian Europe, into a slaughter-house, a charnel
house, an Akeldama. Oh, horrible ; too horrible
to think of! The sight dims, the heart sickens, the
soul is stunned in the presence of the awful
spectacle. O harlot, gilded harlot, with brazen
brow and brazen heart ! red are thy garments, red
thine hands. Thy name is written in this book.
God has written it. The world has read it. Thou
art a murderess, O Rome. Thou art the murderess
Babylon — " Babylon the Great," drunken, foully
drunken ; yea, drunken with the sacred blood
which thou hast shed in streams and torrents,
the blood of saints, the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus. Were there nought else by which to re-
cogtiise tliee^ O persemting Church of Rome^ this
dreadful mark would identify thee. This is thy
brand ; by this we know thee. Thou art that
foretold Babylon, We know thee by thy place.
We know thee by thy proud assumptions, by the
throne on which thou sittest, by those seven hills,
by the beast thou ridest, by the garments thou
wearest, by the cup thou bearest, by the name
blazoned on thy forehead, by thy kingly para-
mours; by thy shameless looks, by thy polluted
deeds; but oh, chiefly by this, by thy prolonged
and dreadful persecution of the saints, by those
massacres, by that Inquisition, by the fires of that

Johns Forevieiv of Romamsni. 177

burning stake. Mark how its ruddy flames ascend;
see how its accusing smoke goes up to heaven !

In this sacred prophecy behold thy picture, read
thy name ; read, ay, read thy written doom. The
French Revolution broke upon thee ; it was a
stage in thy judgment, and no more. The beast
who carried thee for centuries in abject submission
turned against thee, cast thee off, stripped thy
garments from thee, rent thee with its horns. It
was foretold it would be so. It is fulfilled, but
that fulfilment is not the end. It is but the be-
ginning of the end. Tremble, for thy doom is
written from of old. The hand upon the wall
has written it ; the finger of Almighty God has
engraved it. Dreadful have been thy sins ; dread-
ful shall be thy punishment. Thou hast burned
alive myriads of the members of Christ, thou hast
burned them to cinders and to ashes : thy doom
is to be burned ; thy doom is the appalling flame
whose smoke ascends for ever.

I have done. Prophecy has spoken ; history
has fulfilled its utterance. Rome pagan ran its
course ; Rome Papal took its place. " Babylon
the Great " has risen, has reigned, has fallen ; her
end is nigh. " Come out of her. My people," come
out of her before the final judgment act in the
great drama of the apostasy. " Come out of her,"

N

178 Romamsin and the Reformation.

saith your God, " that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." For

AS A MILLSTONE CAST BY A MIGHTY ANGEL
INTO THE SOUNDING DEEP, SHE SHALL WITH
VIOLENCE BE THROWN DOWN, AND SHALL BE
FOUND NO MORE FOR EVER.

LECTURE V.

INTERPRETATION AND USE OF THESE PRO-
PHECIES IN PRE'REFORMATION TIMES.

DOM ANISM— foretold. Such has been our
subject in the four previous lectures — the
Scripture prop/tecy, and the Papal history. That a
deep and widespread apostasy has taken place in
the Christian Church ; that this apostasy has pro-
duced paganised forms of Christianity, the chief
of which is that of the Romish Church ; that the
apostasy of the Romish Church has culminated in
the Papacy; that the Papacy has lasted through
long centuries, and lords it still over half Christen-
dom ; that it has persecuted the faithful unto
blood, striving for the destruction of the gospel of
God as if it were deadly heresy, and for the ex-
termination of the saints of God as of accursed
heretics ; that it would have been completely
triumphant still but for the glorious Reformation,

which burst its bonds, emancipated the enslaved

179

i8o Romanism and the Reformation.

consciences of millions, and created a new depar-
ture in the convictions and actions of the world, —
such are the facts with which history presents us.
They are broad, unquestionable facts, which are
so notorious as to be beyond all controversy, so
long lasting as to fill the records of a thousand
years.

And that this great apostasy was foretold ; that
it was foretold ages before its accomplishment
by Old Testament prophets and New Testament
apostles ; that Daniel dwelling in Babylon fore-
told it, and John, the exile in Patmos, and Paul,
the Apostle to the Gentiles ; that these men, sur-
rounded as they were by ancient heathenism, and
knowing nothing by the evidence of their senses
or by observation of the complete corruption of
Christianity which has since darkened the world,
as a long and awful eclipse of the Sun of righteous-
ness — that these men, prophets and apostles, living
in antecedent times, should have predicted the
extraordinary events which have come to pass,
and should have painted them in vivid colours on
the venerable pages of the writings they have left
us ; and that those predictions have for eighteen
centuries confronted apostate Christendom with
their accusations, and reflected as in a faithful
mirror the entire history of its ways : this is thcj

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. i8t

profound proplietic truth we have endeavoured to
elucidate.

We have now to study THE INTERPRETATION
AND USE of these marvellous prophecies by the
Christian Church. How has the Christian Church
understood and employed them } Of what prac-
tical benefit have these prophecies been to her
during the last eighteen centuries } It is evident
that they were written for her guidance, protec-
tion, and sanctification. The prophecies of Paul
and John are addressed to Christian Churches.
The voice of inspiration expressly invites the
whole Church to study them, and the Church has
obeyed this command. She has read, marked,
learned, and inwardly digested the "sure word ot
prophecy." What moral effect has it had upon
her ? To what extent has it guided her footsteps
and sustained her hopes ? If tJuse propJiecies Jiave
proved to be a mighty power in lur history ; if tliey
have preserved tJie faith of the Church in times of
general apostasy ; if they Iiave given birth to great
reformation movements ; if they have inspired con-
fessorSy and supported martyrs at tfie stake ; if they
liave broken t/ie chains of priestcraft^ superstition^
and tyranny, and produced at last a return on the
part of many many millions of men to a pure,
primitive Christianity, — they have answered their

^■•■w4MWHNM^»>f---'SM4iawM»«M»riW«

182 Romanism and the Reformation.

purpose, and justified their position in the sacred
Scriptures of truth. Nor may we lightly esteem
that interpretatmi which has produced such re-
sults. Had the prophecies been misinterpreted,
applied otherwise than according to the mind of
the Spirit, we cannot believe that they would have
been thus productive of blessed consequences.
The fact that, understood and applied as they were
by the reformers, they have produced spiritual
and eternal good to myriads of mankind is a proof
that they were rightly applied^ for " by their fruits
ye shall know them " is true, not only of teachers,
but of their teachings. Protestantism, with all its
untold blessings, is the fruit of the historic system
of interpretation.

On the other hand, all that leads us to expect
that the sufferers under antichristian tyranny
would correctly interpret the prophetic word
written for their guidance and support prompts
also the expectation that their persecutors would
as surely wrongly interpret it. As apostate Jews
wrongly interpreted the prophecies of the Old
Testament, so we should expect apostate Chris-
tians wrongly to interpret those of the New. In
our study of the last eighteen centuries of inter-
pretation we shall not expect to find the true
interpretation therefore among the apostates^ but

P re- Reformation Interpreters, 183

among the faithfiil ; not among the persecutors,
but among the persecuted ; not among those who
have waged war against the gospel of Christ,
but among those who have confessed its pure
teachings, and sealed that confession with their
blood.

We shall not be surprised to find antagonistic
schools of prophetic interpretation, but, on the
contrary, we shall expect such; and we shall expect
the apostates and persecutors to belong to one
school, and the faithful confessors and martyrs to
another. If an officer of justice arrest a man
because he perceives that he answers exactly to a
description of a notorious criminal published by
the Government as a help to his identification, is it
likely that the man himself will admit that the
description fits him } He will of course deny the
correspondence, but his denial will carry no
weight. On turning to the history of prophetic
interpretation this is precisely what we find.
With many varieties as to detail we find there
have existed, and still exist, two great opposite
schools of interpretation^ the Papal and the Protes-
tant, or the futurist and the historical. The
latter regards the prophecies of Daniel, Paul, and
John as fully and faithfully setting forth the entire
course of Christian history ; the former as dealing

184 Romanism and the Reformation.

chiefly with a future fragment of time at its
close.

The former, or futurist, system of interpreting
the prophecies is now held, strange to say, by
many Protestants, but it was first invented by the
Jesuit Ribera, at the end ot the sixteenth century,
to relieve the Papacy from the terrible stigma cast
upon it by the Protestant interpretation. This
interpretation was so evidently the true and in-
tended one, that the adherents of the Papacy felt
its edge must, at any cost, be turned or blunted.
If the Papacy were the predicted antichrist, as
Protestants asserted, there was an end of the ques-
tion, and separation from it became an impera-
tive duty.

There were only two alternatives. If the anti-
christ were not a present power, he must be
either a past or a future one. Some writers
asserted that the predictions pointed back to Nero.
This did not take into account the obvious fact
that the antichristian power predicted was to
succeed the fall of the Caesars, and develop
among the Gothic nations. The other alternative
became therefore the popular one with Papists.
Antichrist was future^ so Ribera and Bossuet and
others taught. An individual man was intended,
not a dynasty ; the duration of his power would

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 185

not be for twelve and a half centuries, but only
three and a half years ; he would be an open foe to
Christ, not a false friend ; he would be a Jew, and
sit in the Jewish temple. Speculation about the
future took the place of study of the past and
present, and careful comparison of the facts of
history with the predictions of prophecy. This
related, so it was asserted, not to the main course
of the history of the Church, but only to the few
closing years of her history. The Papal head of
the Church of Rome was not the power delineated
by Daniel and St. John. Accurately as it answered
to the description, it was not the criminal indi-
cated. It must be allowed to go free, and the
detective must look out for another man, who was
sure to turn up by-and-by. The historic inter-
pretation was of course rejected with intense and
bitter scorn by the Church it denounced as
Babylon and the power it branded as antichrist,
and it is still opposed by all who in any way
uphold these.

It is held by many that the historic school ot
interpretation is represented only by a small
modern section of t/ie Church, We shall show that
it has existed from the beginnings and includes the
larger part of the greatest and best teachers of
the Church for 1,800 years. We shall show that

1 86 Romanism and tlie Reformation.

the Fathers of the Church belonged to it ; that
the most learned mediaeval commentators belonged
to it, that the confessors^ reformers^ and martyrs
belonged to it, and that it has included a vast
multitude of erudite expositors of later times.
We shall show that all these have held to the
central truth that prophecy faithfully mirrors the
Churc/is history as a tvhole^ and not merely a com-
mencing or closing fragment of that history.

It is held by many that the futurist school of
interpretation is represented chiefly by certain
Protestant commentators and teachers, who deny
that the prophecy of the " man of sin " relates to
the Pope of Rome.

We shall show that the futurist school of inter-
tretation, on t/ie contrary^ is chiefly represented by
teachers belonging to the Church of Rome ; that
the i>opes, cardinals^ bislwps^ and priests of that
apostate Church are all futurists^ and that the
futurist interpretation is one of the chief pillars
of Romanism.

Two interpretations of prophecy are before us,
the historic and the futurist.

The historical school of interpretation regards
these prophecies as reflecting the history of the
fourth or Roman empire, in all its most important
aspects, from first to last, including especially the

Jin.

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 187

dark apostasy which has long prevailed in Chris-
tendom, the testimony and sufferings of God's
faithful people amid this apostasy, and the ulti-
mate triumph of their cause.

On the other hand, the futurist school of in-
terpretation regards these prophecies as dealing
almost exclusively with the distant future of the
consummation ; regards them as dealing chiefly,
not with what has been for the last eighteen hun-
dred years, but with what will be in some final
spasm at the close. The war against the saints
waged by the Roman " little horn " of the pro-
phecies of Daniel, the proud usurpations of the
" man of sin," and his antagonism to the cause of
true religion, foretold by Paul, the blasphemous
pretensions and persecuting deeds of the revived
head of the Roman empire set forth in the pro-
phecies of John — all t/iese are regarded by this
futurist school as relating to a brief future period^
immediately preceding the second advent The
futurist school denies t/ie application of these im-
portant practical prophecies to the conflicts of the
Church during the last eighteen centuries. It robs
the Church of their practical guidance all through
that period. This is the position taken by the
Church of Rome, this is the position taken by the
popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and other

1 88 Romanism and the Reformation,

great teachers of that apostate Church. This is
the prophetic interpretation they have embodied
in a thousand forms, and insisted upon with dog-
matic authority. This has been the interpretation
of proud Papal usurpers, of cruel persecutors, of
merciless tyrants, of the Romanist enemies of the
gospel and of the saints and servants of God.

We shall find, on the other hand, as wc study
the subject, that the historic interpretation of pro-
phecy, the interpretation which condemns Rome,
and which Rome consequently condemns, grew i4p
gradually with the progress of events and the
development of the apostasy of Latin Christianity;
that it slowly modified its details under the illu-
minating influence of actual facts, but that it
retained its principles unaltered from age to age ;
that it was defended by a multitude of earnest
students and faithful expositors ; and that it
shaped the history of heroic struggles and of
glorious revivals of spiritual life and testimony.

This is the interpretation whose history during
fifteen centuries we propose to revieiv this evening.

We shall divide these fifteen centuries into three
periods :

I. The period extending from apostolic times to
the fall of the Roman empire in the fifth cc7ituiy.

II. The period extending from the fall of the

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 189

Roman empire and rise of tlie Papacy in the fifth
century to its exaltation tmder the pontificate of
Gregory VII, (or Hildebrand), the founder of the
Papal theocracy in the eleventh century.

III. The period from Gregory VII, to tlu Refor*
viation.

Firsts then, let us glance at the history of pro-
phetic interpretation in the interval extending
from apostolic times to tlie fall of the Roman empire
in tlie fifth century. This was the period of the
so called Fathers of the Christian Church. A
multitude of their writings remain to us, contain-
ing, not only almost countless references to the
prophecies in question, but complete commentaries
on Daniel and the Apocalypse. It is boldly
claimed by many that the Fathers of the first five
centuries held the futurist interpretation of these
books. We deny the correctness of this position,
and assert that the Fathers of the first five
centuries belonged to the historical school of in-
terpretation. It was impossible for them, owing
to the early position which they occupied, rightly
to anticipate the manner and scale of the fulfil-
ment of these wondrous prophecies ; but as far
as their circumstances permitted they correctly
grasped their general significance, and adhered to
that interpretation which regards prophecy as

I go Romanism and the Refor7nation,

foretelling the whole course of the Church's war-
fare from the first century to the second advent.

It is impossible at this time to do more than
present a brief summary of the views of the
Fathers on this subject, and to name and refer
you to their works.

I. The Fathers interpreted the four wild beasts
of prop/tecy as representing the four empires^ Baby-
Ion, Persia, Greece, and Rome, Here we have the
foundation of the historical interpretation of pro-
phecy. Take as an instance the words of Hippo-
lytus on the great image and four wild beasts of
Daniel : " The golden head of the image/* he
says, "is identical with the lioness, by which the
Babylonians were represented ; the shoulders and
the arms of silver are the same with the bear, by
which the Persians and Medes are meant ; the
belly and thighs of brass are the leopard, by which
the Greeks who ruled from Alexander onwards
are intended ; the legs of iron are the dreadful
and terrible beast, by which the Romans who hold
the empire now are meant ; the toes of clay and
iron are the ten horns which are to be ; the one
other little horn springing up in their midst is
the antichrist ; the stone that smites the image
and breaks it in pieces, and that filled the whole
earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven and

P7'e' Reformation Interpreters. 191

brings judgment on the world." ^ This statement
is remarkable for its clearness, correctness, and con-
densation, and expresses the view held still by the
historic school.

Hippolytus says, in the treatise on " Christ and
Antichrist " : " Rejoice, blessed Daniel, thou hast
not been in error ; all these things have come to
pass " (p. 19). " Already t/ie iron rules ; already it
subdues and breaks all in pieces ; already it brings
all the unwilling into subjection ; already we see
these things ourselves. Now we glorify God,
being instructed by thee " (p. 20).

2. Tlie Fatlters held that the ten-Iiomed beasts oj
Daniel and John are the same. As an instance,
Ircnaeus, in his book "Against Heresies," chap,
xxvi., says : ^' John, in the Apocalypse, . . .
teaches us what the ten horns shall be which
were seen by Daniel^

3. The Fathers held the historic interpretation
of the Apocalypse, As Elliott says, none of the
Fathers " entertained the idea of the apocalyptic
prophecy overleaping the chronological interval,
were it less or greater, antecedent to the consum-
mation, and plunging at once into the times of
the consummation."^ Here, for example, is the

* Hippolytus : vol. i., p. 447.

' Elliott : " Horse Apocalypticae," vol. i\%, p. 299, 4th cd.

192 Romanism and the Reformation.

commentary of Victorinus on the Apocalypse of
John, written towards the end of the third century.
This is the earliest commentary extant on the
Apocalypse as a whole. In this, the going forth
of the white horse under the first seal is inter-
preted of the victories of the gospel in the first
century. This view, you will observe, involves
the historical interpretation of the entire book
of Revelation. Victorinus interprets the woman
clothed with the sun, having the moon under her
feet, and wearing a crown of twelve stars on her
head, and travailing in her pains, as "the ancient
Church of fathers, prophets, saints, and apostles " ;
in other words, the Judaeo-Christian body of saints.
He could not of course point to fulfilments which
were at his early date still future, but he recog-
nises the principle.

4. The Fathers held titat the little horn of Daniel,
t/te man of sin foretold by Paul, and the revived
head of tlie Roman empire predicted by John, repre-
sent one and the saine power ; and they held that
tower to be tlie antichrist. For example, Origen, in
his famous book, " Against Celsus," thus expresses
himself (bk. vi., chap. xlvi.). After quoting nearly
the whole of Paul's prophecy about the man of sin
in 2 Thessalonians, which he interprets of the anti-
christ, he says : "Since Celsus rejects the statements

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 193

concerning antichrist, as it is termed, having neither
read what is said of him in the book of Daniel^ nor
in the writings of Patil^ nor what the Saviour in
the gospels has predicted about his coming, we
must make a few remarks on this subject. . . .
Paul speaks of him who is called antichrist,
describing, though with a certain reserve, both the
manner and time and cause of his coming. . . .
The prophecy also regarding antichrist is stated
in the book of Daniel^ and is fitted to make an
intelligent and candid reader admire the words as
truly Divine and prophetic ; for in them are men-
tioned the things relating to the coming kingdom,
beginning with the times of Daniel, and continuing
to the destruction of the world."

Jerome^ in his commentary on the book of
Daniel (chap, vii.), says, with reference to the little
horn which has a mouth speaking great things,
that " it is the man of sin, the son of perdition,
who dares to sit in the temple of God, making
himself as God." ^

5. The Fathers held that the Roman empire was
the " let I' or hindrance^ referred to by Paul in 2 Thes-
salonians^ which kept back tJie manifestation of the
" man of sin',' This point is of great importance.

^ "Est enim homo peccati, filius perditionis, ita ut in
tcmplo Dei sedere audeat, faciens se quasi Deum."

O

194 Romanism and the Reformation,

Paul distinctly tells us that he knew, and that the
Thessalonians knew, what that hindrance was, and
that it was then in existence. The early Church,
through the writings of the Fathers, tells us what
it knew upon the subject, and with remarkable
unanimity affirms that this "let," or hindrance,
was the Roman empire as governed by the Ccesars ;
that while the Caesars held imperial power, it was
impossible for the predicted antichrist to arise,
and that on the fall of the Caesars he would arise.
Here we have a point on which Paul affirms the
existence of knowledge in the Christian Church.
The early Church knew, he says, what this hin-
drance was. The early Church tells us what it did
know upon the subject, and no one in these days
can be in a position to contradict its testimony
as to what Paul had, by word of mouth only, told
the Thessalonians. It is a point on which ancient
tradition alone can have any authority. Modern
speculation is positively impertinent on such a
subject^

* As to the " let " or hindrance to the manifestation of the
" man of sin " referred to in 2 Thess, ii., Mr. Elliott says :
" We have the consenting testimony of the early Fathers,
from Irenaeus, the disciple of the disciple of St. John, down
to Chrysostom and Jerome, to the effect that it was under-
stood to be the imperial power ruling and residing at
Rome." — " Horae Apocalypticae," vol. iii., p. 92.

iRENiEUS held that the division of the Roman empire

ft

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 195

What then was the view of the early Church ?
Look at the words of Tertidlian. Quoting Thes-

into ten kingdoms would immediately precede the manifes-
tation of antichrist. In his work, " Against Heresies," book
v., chap. XXX., he says, " Let them await, in the first place, the
division of the kingdom into ten j then, in the next place^
when these kings are reigning, and beginning to set their
affairs in order and advance their kingdoms, (let them learn)
to acknowledge that he who shall come claiming the king-
dom for himself and shall terrify those sons of men of
whom we have been speaking, having a name containing
the aforesaid number (666), is truly the abomination of
desolation." Thus, according to Irenaeus the manifestation
of antichrist required the previous overthrow of the then
existing Roman empire.

Tertullian's "Apology" thus describes the habit of
the Christian Church of the second century to pray for the
security of the Roman empire, in the knowledge that its
downfall would bring the catastrophe of the reign of anti-
christ and the ruin of the world. Addressing the " rulers
of the Roman empire," he says : " We offer prayer for the
safety of our princes to the eternal, the true, the living God,
whose favour, beyond all others, they must themselves desire.
. . . Thither we lift our eyes, with hands outstretched,
because free from sin ; with head uncovered, for we have
nothing whereof to be ashamed ; finally, without a monitor,
because it is from the heart we supplicate. And without
ceasing for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for
life prolonged ; for security to the empire. . . . With our
hands thus stretched out and up to God, rend us with your
iron claws, hang us up on crosses, wrap us in flames, take
our heads from us with the sword, let loose the wild beasts
upon us, — the very attitude of a Christian praying is the pre-
paration for all punishment. Let this, good rulers, be your
work, wring from us the soul, beseeching God on the em-
peror's behalf. Upon the truth of God and devotion to His

196 Romanism and the Reformation,

salonians, he says : " Now ye know what detaineth
that he might be revealed in his time, for the
mystery of iniquity doth already work ; only he
who now hinders must hinder until he be taken
out of the way. What obstacle is there but the
Romaft state; the falling away of which, by being
scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce anti-
name put the brand of crime. . . . There is also another
and a greater necessity for our oflfering prayer in behalf of the
emperors, nay, for the complete stabihty of the empire, and
for Roman interests in general. For we know that a mighty
shock impending over the whole earth — in fact, the very end
of all things, threatening dreadful woes — is only retarded
by the continued existence of the Roman empire. We have
no desire then to be overtaken by these dire events ; and in
praying that their coming may be delayed, we are lending
our aid to Rome's duration." — "Apology,'' §§ 30-32.

(" Est et alia maior necessitas nobis orandi pro impera-
toribus, etiam pro omni statu imperii rebusque Romanis, qui
vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsamque clau-
sulam saeculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Roman i
IMPERII commeatu scimus retardari."— Tertullian : "Apo-
logeticum," § 32.)

Jerome writes to the same effect in his commentary on
2 Thess. ii. : " He who now letteth, or hindereth." " Ut
qui tenet nunc teneat, etc. Donee regnum quod nunc
tenet, de medeo auferatur, prius qua antichristus reveletur."

*'M6voi' & Kfirk%jav Apri fus ix fiiaov yivrjrcU' TOvriaTiv i\
dpX^ ^ *Pw|AOiidj trrav dpd^ €K p.i<rov^ t6t€ iKcivos ij^ei, , . .
'Ocnrep yd.p al rpb toijtov KaT€\jj$7j<rav paaiXc^at, oXov ij M^8«iv virb
BapvXc0vCo>v, 71 Bapv\wplwp vtrb Ilcpo'tfv, ij Uepaup inrb MaKc8<$vo>v,
rj Ma/ce86vwv vxb 'Po>)iaCc0V* oh-tj Kal airrrj virb toO 'AvrKyjilcrrov,
KiKeiPosVrb tov XpurroO."— Chrysostom : " Homily on 2 Thessa-
lonians ii. 6-9."

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 197

Christ, . . . that the beast antichrist, with his
false prophet, may wage war on the Church of
God ? " 1

In his magnificent " Apology," addressed to the
rulers of the Roman empire, Tertullian says that
the Christian Church — not himself, mark, but the
Christian Q\iMXc\\— prayed for the emperors, and
for the stability of the empire of Rome, because
they knew " that a mighty shock impending over
the whole earth — in fact, the very end of all
things, threatening dreadful woes — ^was ONLY
RETARDED by the contijiiied existence of t/ie Roman
empire^ ^

Read the words of Chrysostom in his "Com-
mentary on 2 Thessalonians " : " One may first
naturally inquire what is that which withholdeth,
and after that would know why Paul expresses this
so obscurely, . . . *he who now letteth will
let, until he be taken out of the way.' That is,
wlien the Roman empire is taken out of the way, tlien
he shall come ; and naturally, for as long as the
fear of this empire lasts, no one will readily exalt
himself; but when that is dissolved, he will attack
the anarchy, and endeavour to seize upon the
government both of men and of God. For as the

> Tertullian : " On the Resurrection," chaps, xxiv., xxv.
« " Apology,'' § 32.

n

198 Romanism and t/te Reformation.

kingdoms before this were destroyed, that of the
Medes by the Babylonians, that of the Babylonians
by the Persians, that of the Persians by the Mace-
donians, that of the Macedonians by the Romans, .
so will this be by antichrist^ and he by Christ."

Then accounting for PauFs reserve in alluding
to this point he adds : ** Because he says this of
the Rovtan empire^ he naturally only glanced at it
and spoke covertly, for he did not wish to bring
upon himself superfluous enmities and useless
dangers. For if he had said that, after a little
while, the Roman empire would be dissolved, they
would now immediately have even overwhelmed
him as a pestilent person, and all the faithful as
living and warring to this end." ^

From IrencBus, who lived close to apostolic
times, down to Chrysostom and Jerome, the Fathers
taught that the power withholding the manifesta-
tion of the " man of sin " was the Roman empire
as governed by tlie Ccesars. The Fathers therefore
belong to the historic^ and not to the futurist
school of interpretation ; for futurists imagine that
the hindrance to the manifestation of the man of
sin is still in existence^ though the Caesars have long
since passed away.

* Chrysostom : Homily IV., " On 2 Thessalonians ii.'^

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 199

6. J lie Fathers luld that the fall of tlie Roman
empire luas imminent^ and therefore the manifestation
of antichrist close at hand, Justin Martyr, for
example, one of the earliest of the Fathers, in his
" Dialogue with Trypho," chap, xxxii., says : ** He
whom Daniel foretells would have dominion for
'time and times and a half is already even at
the door, about to speak blasphemous and daring
things against the Most High."

Cyprian, in his " Exhortation to Martyrdom,"
says : " Since , , , the hateful time of antichrist
is already beginning to draw near, I would collect
from the sacred Scriptures some exhortations for
preparing and strengthening the minds of the
brethren, whereby I might animate the soldiers
of Christ for the heavenly and spiritual contest." ^

7. The. Fatlicrs held that t/ie " man of sin,'' or
antichrist, would be a ruler or head of the Roman
empire, A striking illustration of this is the in-
terpretation by Trenceus and Hippolytus of the
mysterious number 666, the number of the revived
head of the beast, or antichrist. Irenceus gives
as its interpretation the word Latinos. He says :
" Latinos is the number 666, and it is a very
probable (solution), this being the name of the last

* Treatise xi.

200 Romanism and the Reformation,

kingdom^ for tlie Latins arc they w/w at present
bear ruler ^

Hippolytus gives the same solution in his treatise
on " Christ and Antichrist."

8. The Fathers held tliat the Babylon of the
Apocalypse means Rome, On this point they were
all agreed^ and their unanimity is an important
seal on the correctness of this interpretation.
Tertullian, for example, in his answer to the Jews,
says : " Babylon, in our own John, is a figure of
the city Rome, as being equally great and proud
of her sway, and triumphant over the saints "
(chap. ix.). VictorimiSy who wrote the earliest
commentary on the Apocalypse extant, says, on
Revelation xvii. : " The seven heads are the seven
hills on which the woman sitteth — that is, the city
of Rome"

Hippolytus says : "Tell me, blessed John, apostle
and disciple of the Lord, what didst thou see and
hear concerning Babylon ? Arise and speak, for //
sent tlue also into banishment" ^ You notice here
the view that Rome which banished the Apostle
John is the Babylon of the Apocalypse.

Augustine says, ^^ Rome, tlie second Babylon, and
the daughter of the first, to which it pleased God

^ iRENiEUS : "Against Heresies," book v., chap. xxx.
« Treatise " On Christ and Antichrist," § 36.

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 201

to subject the whole world, and bring it all under
one sovereignty, was now founded."^ In chap,
xxviii. he calls Rome " the western Babylon^ In
chap. xli. he says : " It has not been in vain that
this city has received tlie mysterious name of Baby-
Ion; for Babylon is interpreted confusion, as we
have said elsewhere."

It is clear from these quotations that the Fathers
did not interpret the Babylon of the Apocalypse
as meaning either the literal Babylon on the
Euphrates, or some great city in France or Eng-
land, but as meaning Rome. And this is still
the interpretation of the historic school, though
for the last 800 years events have proved Babylon
to represent Rome, not in its pagan, but in its
Papal form.

It should be noted that 7ione of the Fathers held
the fjitnrist gap theory, the theory that the book
of Revelation overleaps nearly eighteen centuries
of Christian history, plunging at once into the
distant future, and devoting itself entirely to pre-
dicting the events of the last few years of this dis-
pensation. As to the subject of antichrist, there
was a universal agreement among them concerning
the general idea of the prophecy, while there were
differences as to details, these differences arising
* " City of God," book xviii., chap. xxii.

202 Ro7nanis7n and the Reformation.

chiefly from the notion that the antichrist would
be in some way Jeivish as well as Roman, It is
true they thought that the antichrist would be an
individual man. Their early position sufficiently
accounts for this. They had no conception and
could have no conception of the true nature and
length of the tremendous apostasy which was to
set in upon the Christian Church. They were not
prop/uts, and could not foresee that the Church
was to remain nineteen centuries in the wilderness,
and to pass through prolonged and bitter perse-
cution under a succession of nominally Christian
but apostate rulers, filling the place of the ancient
Caesars and emulating their antichristian deeds.
Had they known these things, we may well believe
their views would have completely harmonized
with those of historic interpreters of later times.
The Fathers went as far as they could go in the
direction in which historical interpreters of these
last days have travelled. Further, much that was
dark to them in prophecy has become clear to
their successors in the light of its accomplishment.
Divine providence has thrown light, as it could
not fail to do, on Divine prediction.

II. We come now, in the second place, very
briefly to review the history of prophetic inter-

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 20

J

pretation in tlie interval extending betivcen tlie fall
of tJie western empire of Rome and the developpnent
of tlie Papal tlieocracy in the eleventh century^ under
Gregory VII, The interpreters of this period
belonged, like the Fathers, to the historic school.
They interpreted the Apocalypse as a prophecy
of the whole course of events from the first advent
to the consummation.

The following authors living in this interval
wrote commentaries on the entire Apocalypse^ Prima-
sins, the Venerable Bede^ Anspert, Hay mo, Andreas,
Arethras, and Berengaud,

PrimasiuSy who lived in the middle of the sixth
century, interpreted the "hundred and forty-four
thousand" sealed persons in the Apocalypse as
the Christian Church. He held that antichrist
would substitute himself for Christ and blasphe-
mously assume His dignity, and that the seven-
hilled city was Rome.

The Venerable Bcde, who lived in the north
of England at the close of the seventh century,
was an historical interpreter of the Apocalypse.
Here is a copy of his commentary. He takes the
first seal to represent the triumphs of the primi-
tive Church. He expounds the lamb-like beast
of Revelation xiii. as a pscudo- Christian false
prophet.

204 Romanism and the Reformation.

Ambrose Anspert wrote a copious commentary
on the Apocalypse in the middle of the eighth
century. He expounds the second beast of Revela-
tion xiii. as meaning the preachers and ministers
of antichrist, and teaches that antichrist will be
"pro Christo," or in Christ's place. It is a remark-
able fact that he expounds the grievous " sore," or
ulcer, poured out under the first vial, as meaning
infidelity. This is the general view at the present
day among historical interpreters. They consider
the infidelity of the French Revolution to be the
fulfilment of this vial.

Haymows commentary, written in the ninth cen-
tury, is for the most part abridged from Anspert.

AfidreaSy who was Bishop of Caesarea, states
definitely that the Apocalypse was a prophecy of
the things to happen from Christ's first coming to
the consummation. He interprets the "hundred
and forty-four thousand" as meaning true Chris-
tians, and antichrist to be a Roman king and
•' pseudo-Christ," or false Christ.

Arethras^ who wrote in the ninth century, mainly
follows Andreas,

Berengatids commentary on the Apocalypse,
written in the same century, is the least satisfactory
of all. He was a Benedictine monk, and lived at
a very dark period. His notion was that anti-

Pre- Reformation Interpreters, 205

Christ would be an av<nved infidel and an open
advocate of licentiousness. He was, as far as is
known, the first interpreter to propound this
view.

The interval during which these interpreters
lived was marked by the steady rise^ but not by tlie
full manifestation of the Papacy. Two notions
contributed powerfully to prevent their recognising
in the imperfectly developed Papacy the predicted
" man of sin." They imagined that as the eastern
empire of Rome, seated at Constantinople, still
continued, the " let " or hindrance to the manifes-
tation of antichrist remained, completely over-
looking the fact that the antichristian power
foretold in prophecy is definitely linked with the
sruen hills of Rome, and thus with the fall of the
western empire, and the apostasy of the Latin or
western Church.

Then they spiritualized and explained away a
great deal of prophecy, and supposed that they
were living in the millenniumy and that the anti-
christ would not be manifested till the brief out-
break of evil at its close. This false notion had
fatal consequences. While these interpreters, in
common with the generality of Christians at their
period, were looking for the advent of the " man
of sin" in the distant future, he stole unperceived

2o6 Romanism and the Reformation.

into their midst, and usurped the place of Christ
over His unwatchful flock.

Before we leave this mediaeval period, there are
three remarkable testimonies to which we must
just refer. Gregory tlie Great, in the sixth century,
declared before Christendom that whosoever called
himself universal bisJiop or universal priest was
tlie precursor of antichrist. In this he was doubt-
less perfectly correct. When Boniface III,, shortly
after the death of Gregory, took this title in the
year 607, he became the precursor of antichrist,
as fully revealed under Boniface VIIL

Glierbert of Rheims, before the year 1000, said of
the pope sitting on his lofty throne in gold and
purple, that if destitute of charity, he was anti-
Christ sitting in the temple of God,

Lastly, Berenger, in the eleventh century, refer-
ring to the pope's enforcement at that time of the
doctrine of transubstantiation, affirmed the Roman
see to be not the apostolic seat, but the seat of
Satan,

Thus gradually did an understanding of the true
character of the Papacy dawn upon the Christian
Church of this period.

III. We will now, in ttte third and last place,
briefly consider the history of prophetic interpreta-

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 207

tion from tlie time of Gregory VIL^ in the eleventh
century^ to the Reformation^ in the sixteenth.

The pontificate of Gregory VII. was the era of
the Papacy unveiled. At this date the pope
dropped the mask of the shepherd, and exchanged
the crook for the sceptre and the sword. The
accession of Gregory VII. in 1073 is a great land-
mark in the Church's history. Gregory VII., or
Hildebrand, as he was called, created, as we have
before stated, the Papal theocracy. Do you know
what this means ? He claimed for himself, in
the name of God, absolute a?td unlimited dominion
over all the states of Christendom^ as successor of
St, Peter, and vicar of Christ upon earth. The
popes who came after him pushed these claims to
their utmost extent. At the end of the thirteenth
century they assumed the proud title of masters of
tlie world. Three names stand out conspicuously
in the three middle centuries of this dark period,
Gregory VII., Innocent III, and Boniface VIII,
The historian of the middle ages well says, "As
Gregory VII. appears the most usurping of man-
kind till we read the history of Innocent III, so
Innocent III. is thrown into the shade by the
supreme audacity of Boniface VIII." ^ In those
days lived the great Italian poet Dante, He
' Hallam ; " History of the Middle Ages," p. 384.

2o8 Romanism and the Reformatiojt,

described his age with extraordinary power.

Writing in the thirteenth century, and in Italy, he

painted the Papacy as the world beheld it then.

And what did the world see then ? It saw in the

Papacy the usurping " man of sin " ; and in the

Church of Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse,

Mark, even the world saw it. Hear a few lines

from Dante's immortal poem on Hell, Purgatory,

and Paradise :

" Woe to thee, Simon Magus ! woe to you
His wretched followers^ who the things of God
Which should be wedded unto goodness, them,
Rapacious as ye are, do prostitute
For gold and silver ! "

" Your avarice
O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot
Treading the good, and raising bad men up.
Of shepherds like to you, the Evangelist
Was ware, when her, who sits upon the waves.
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld.
She who with seven heads towered at her birth,
And from ten horns her proof of glory drew,
Long as her spouse in virtue took delight.
Of gold and silver ye have made your god.
Differing wherein from the idolater,
But that he worships one, a hundred ye.**
Ah, Constantine, to how much ill gave birth.
Not thy conversion, but that plenteous dower.
Which the first wealthy Father gained from theeT''^

* "Di voi pastor s' accorse il Vangelista,
Quando colei, che siede sovra Tacque

PrC'Reforniation Interpreters. 209

In his poem on Paradise he says :

" My place he who usurps on earth hath made
A common sewer of puddle and of blood.

No purpose was of ours that the keys

Which were vouchsafed me should yi?r ensigns scpt'c

Unto the banners that do lerjy war

On the baptized : nor I for sigil mark

Set upon sold and lying privileges,

Which makes me oft to bicker and turn red.

In shepherd^ s clothing greedy wolves below

Range wide o'er all the pastures. Arm of God^

Why longer steepest thou f "

In the end of his poem on Paradise, he refers to
the Apostle John as —

"The seer
That e'er he died, saw all the grievous times
Of the fair bride, who with the lance and nails
Was won."

You will observe that these beautiful and touch-
ing words recognise the historical interpretation of

Puttaneggiar co' Regi a lui fu vista :
Queila che con le sette teste nacque,
£ dalle diece coma ebbe argomento.
Fin che virtute al suo marito piacque.
Fatto v'avete Dio d'oro e d'argento :
£ che altro h da voi alP idolatre,
Se non ch'egli uno, e voi n'orate cento .^
Alii Costantin, di quanto mal fu matre,
Non la tua conversion, ma queila dote
Che da te prese il primo ricco patre ! "

Dante : " Inferno," canto xix,

P

210 Romanism and the Reformation.

the Apocalypse. The Apostle John, according to
Dante, saw " all the grievous times " through which
the Church was destined to pass.

And what Dante saw, the Albigenses saw, and
the Waldenses. What wonder was there in this }
Would not the wonder have been had the saints
remained blind to a fulfilment of prophecy so plain
and palpable that even the world recognised it ?

In the sunny south of France, in Provence and
Catalonia, lived the Albigenses, They were a
civilized and highly educated people. Among
these people there sprang up an extensive reidval
of true religion, and one of its natural effects was
a bold testimony against the abominations of apo-
state Rome. Here is Sismondi's " History of the
Albigenses." On p. 7 he says of them and of
the Vaudois : "All agreed in regarding the Church
of Rome as having absolutely perverted Chris-
tianity, and in maintaining that it was she zuho zuas
designated in the Apocalypse by the name of the
zvlwre of Babylon!^ Rome could not endure this
testimony ; she drew her deadly sword and waged
war against those who bore it. In the year 1208
the Albigenses were murderously persecuted.
Innocent III. (what a mockery his name!) em-
ployed the crusaders in this dreadful work. The
war of extermination was denominated sacred.

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 2 1 1

The pope's soldiers prosecuted it with pious ar-
dour ; men, women, and children were all precipi-
tated into the flames ; whole cities were burned.
In Besiers every soul was massacred ; seven thou-
sand dead bodies were counted in a single church,
where the people had taken refuge ; the whole
country was laid waste; an entire people was
slaughtered, and the eloquent witness of these
early reformers was reduced to the silence of the
sepulchre.

Thus began the tremendous war against the
saints foretold in Daniel and the Apocalypse, and
thenceforward it was murderously prosecuted from
century to century. Early in the thirteenth cen-
tury was founded the Inquisition^ and full perse-
cuting powers entrusted by the popes to the
Dominicans.

A remnant of the Vaudois escaping from the
south of France took refuge in the Alps, where
the light of the Gospel had been preserved from
the earliest times. I have visited the Waldensian
valleys, and will try in a few words to bring them

before you.

You doubtless remember the position of the city
of Milan on the plain of Lombardy. From the
top of the famous cathedral of Milan there is a
magnificent view of the southern Alps. The plains

212 Romanism and the Reformation,

of Lombardy and Piedmont extend to their base.
The Alps are seen stretching to the east and west,
as far as the eye can reach. The sun at noon falls
full upon their crowded peaks. There they stand
in rugged, wild sublimity, their lower slopes
mantled with dark forests, their summits crowned
with glaciers and eternal snows.

To the west among these, beyond the city of
Turin, rises the vast white cone of Monte Vise.
Among the mountains at its base lie the Walden-
sian valleys. They are five in number, and run up
into narrow, elevated gorges, winding among fir-
clad steeps, and climbing into the region of the
clouds, which hover round the icy, alpine peaks.
These valleys were the refuge of the "Israel of
the Alps." Protestants long before the Reforma-
tion^ these noble mountaineers resolutely refused
to bow the knee to Baal ; they were a faithful
remnant of the early Church preserved all through
the central ages of apostasy.

This folio volume is a faithful history of the
Waldenscs, written 217 years ago, by the Wal-
densian pastor Legcr. It contains his portrait I
have often looked at it with interest. The coun-
tenance is scarred with suffering, but full of
spiritual light. Leger tells with simple clearness
the story of the Waldenses from the earliest times,

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 213

quoting from ancient and authentic documents.
He gives in full their confession of faith, and
narrates the history of their martyrdoms, including
the dreadful massacre in the vale of Lucerna, in
1 65 5, of which lie himself tvas an eye-witness. This
book was written only fourteen years after that
massacre. It contains numerous depositions con-
cerning it, rendered on oath, and long lists of the
names of those who were its victims. It gives
also plates depicting the dreadful ways in which
they were slaughtered. These plates represent
men, women, and children being dismembered^ dis-
emboweled^ ripped up^ run through with swords^
impaled on stakes^ torn limb from limb, flung from
precipices^ roasted in flames. They are almost too
horrible to look at. And this was only one of
a long series of massacres of the Waldenses
extending through 600 painful years. Milton
wrote of these Protestant sufferers his immortal
sonnet :

^^ Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old.
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones.
Forget not : in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

214 Romanism and the Reformation.

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway

The triple tyrant ; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who, having learned Thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe."

The persecuted Waldenses were students of
prophecy from the oldest times. How did they
interpret the prophecies concerning " Babylon "
and the "man of sin"? Here in this book of
Leger's is their Treatise on Ajitichristy written in
the year 1 120, or nearly 800 years ago. It is written
in a language now extinct } Leger gives a French
translation in parallel columns (here it is at p.
71). In simple, telling terms that treatise brands
tJie Romish Church as the luirlot Babylon^ and the
Papacy as the " ma7i of si?i *' and ajitichrist. That
was the faith and confession of the Waldenses.^

* Extract from the Waldensian Treatise on Antichrist^
dated a.d. i 120 {Histoire Gt^nt^rale des Kglises Evangdliques
des Vallt^es de Pithnont^ ou Vaudoises^ fiar yean Leger ^ A.D.
1669,^. 71, etc.).

"Antichrist. ... Ma " L'antichrist . . . Mais
meseima la falseta, pausa c'est la faussetd meme op-
contra la verity quilli se que- posee k la veritd, qui se
bre, e se orna de belleza, e couvre et s*ome de beaut e,
de pieta, de fora de la Gleisa et de picte, hors dc TEglise
de Christ, cnaima de Christ, de Christ, comme des Noms,
cnaima de Nom, dc Officies, des Offices, des Ecritures,
de Scripturas, e de Sacra- ct des Sacrcmens, et dc
m^ns, c de motas autras plusieurs autrcs choses :

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 215

Turn now for a few moments to Boftemia. You
remember that it is an extensive province in the
north-west of Austria. There a reformation sprang
up more than a century before the time of Luther,

cosas. La iniquitk d'aquesta
maniera com li seo Ministre
majors, e manors, com li
segu^nt ley de malu^s cor e
cec, aital congregation en-
semp presa hs appelk Anti-
christ, o Babylonia, o

QUARTA BESTIA, O MeRE-

TRix, o Home de peccA,
Filli de perdition.

" Li seos Ministres son-
appella fals Prophetas,
Maistres mesongers, Min-
istres de tenebras, Sperit
d'error, meretrix Apoca-
LYPTICA, maire de fornica-
tion, niolas senza aigua,
arbres auctomnals, morts
& aranc^s per doas vez,
undas del crudel mar, Stel-
las errans, Balaamitiens, e
Gissiptiens.

" El es dit Antichrist em-
per(ib ca cubert e orna sot
specie de Christy e de la
Gleisa^ e de li seo fidel
membre, contraria ci la salh
faita per Christy e aministrtl
veram^nt en la Glcisa de
Christ."

riniquite laquelle est de
cette maniere, avec tous ces
Ministres grans et petis,
avec tous ceux qui les en-
suivent de mauvais coeur, et
aveugle, telle congregation
prise ensemble est appelde
Antichrist, ou Babylone,

OU QUATRlfeME BflTE, OU

Paillarde, OU Homme de
peche', Fils de perdition.

"Ses Ministres sont ap-
pelez FAUX Prophetes,
Maitres mensongers, Minis-
tres de tenebres. Esprit
d'erreur, paillarde Apo-
CALYPTIQUE, Mere de forni-
cation, nudes sans eau,
arbres automnals morts et
arrachez par deux fois, ondes
de la cruelle mer, dtoiles
errantes, Balaamites, et
Egyptiens.

*'^ II est dit Antichrist^ pour
ce que couvert et ornd de la
Livre de Christy et de son
Eglise^ et de ses fideles
membres, il contrarie au
salut fait par Christy et
administrd vrayement en
I'Eglise de Christ."

2i6 Romanism and the Reformation.

and was quenched in seas of blood. What gave
rise to it? The testimonies of John Huss and
Jerome of Pragtie, What did these men hold as
to the Church of Rome and the Papacy? That
Rome is Babylon^ and the Papacy the antichrist}

' "An epistle of John Huss unto the people of Prague :

"... The more circumspect ye ought to be for that
ANTICHRIST laboureth the more to trouble you. The last
judgment is near at hand ; death shall swallow up many,
but to the elect children of God the kingdom of God draweth
near. . . . Know ye, well beloved, that antichrist
being stirred up against you deviseth divers persecutions."
— " Acts and Monuments," vol. iii., pp. 497, 498.

"A letter of John Huss to the Lord John de Clum :

". . . By your letter which I received yesterday, I
understand first, how the iniquity of the great strumpet,
that is, of the malignant congregation, whereof mention
IS made in the Apocalypse, is detected, and shall be
more detected ; with which strumpet the kings of the earth
do commit fornication, fornicating spiritually from Christ ;
and, as is there said, sliding back from the truth, and con-
senting to the lies of antichrist, through his seduction and
through fear, or through hope of confederacy, for getting of
worldly honour." — "Acts and Monuments," vol. iii., p. 499.
" Letter of John Huss wherein he comforteth his friends
and willeth them not to be troubled for the condenming
of his books, and also declareth the wickedness of the
clergy :

" Master John Huss, in hope, the servant of God, to all
the faithful who love him and his statutes, wisheth the truth
and grace of God. . . . Surely even at this day is the
malice, the abomination, and filthiness of antichrist re-
vealed in the pope and others of this council. ... Oh
how acceptable a thing should it be, if time would suffer

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 217

Witness their testimony, quoted by Fox the mar-
tyrologist I have stood on the spot in Constance
where these men were condemned to death. Rome
burned them. Here is a history of "the Refor-
mation and anti-reformation in Bohemia." The
Bohemian brethren avowed the doctrines of John
Huss, including his views on the anti-Papal pro-
phecies. Rome exterminatedxthe reformed Bohe-
mians. The story is a dreadful one.^ But from

me to disclose their wicked acts, which are now apparent ;
that the faithful servants of God might know them ! I trust
in God that He will send after me those that shall be more
valiant; and there are alive at this day that shall make
more manifest the malice of antichrist, and shall give
their lives to the death for the tmth of our Lordfesus Christy
who shall give, both to you and me, the joys of life ever-
lasting.

" This epistle was written upon St. John Baptist's Day, in
prison and in cold irons ; I having this meditation with
myself, that John was beheaded in his prison and bonds, for
the word of God." — "Acts and Monuments," vol. iii., pp.
502, 503.

* " In the year 142 1 the miseries of the Bohemians greatly
increased. Besides the executions by drownings hy fire, and
by the sword, several thousands of the followers of Huss,
especially the Taborites, of all ranks and both sexes, were
thrown down the old mines and pits of Kuttenberg. . . .
In one pit were thrown 1,700, in another 1,308, and in a third
1,321 persons. Every year, on the i8th of April, a solemn
meeting was held in a chapel built there, in memory of those
martyrs, until the year 161 3, when the mint-master Wrsche-
sowetz endeavoured to prevent it, yet it continued until the
great persecution of 162 1. A monument, it is said, still

2i8 Romanism and the Reformation.

their ashes rose new witnesses. From the perse-
cuted Bohemians sprang the Moravians, who this
day are missionaries throughout the world !

Turn lastly, for a moment, to England. Before
the Reformation, 500 years ago, God raised up in
this country John Wicliffe. Men called him " the
morning star of the Reformation." He translated
the Scriptures into the English tongue, and waged
war against the errors and abominations of the
Church of Rome. How did Wicliffe interpret
these prophecies? Just as the Waldenses did.
Here is one of his books filled with references to
the pope as antichrist. He wrote a special
treatise, entitled Speadmn de Antichristo ("The
Mirror of Antichrist "). From Wicliffe sprang the
English Lollards. They numbered hundreds of
thousands. What was their testimony.^ Let me
give it to you in the words of one of them. Lord
Cobhaniy that famous man of God, who lived just
a century before Luther.

When brought before King Henry V. and ad-
monished to submit himself to the pope as an
obedient child, this was his answer : " As touching

marks the place (Lasitius, * Origo Fratrum,' vol. i., p. 69 ;
Theobald's * Hussite War,' p. 150, 1624; Rieger's 'History
of the Bohemian Brethren,' vol. ii., p. 592 ; Rcgenvolscius,
* Systema Hist Eccles. Sclavonic. *)•" — " The Reformation
and Anti-Reformation in Bohemia," p. 13.

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 219

the pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither
suit nor service, forasmuch as I knoiu him by the
Scriptures to be the great antichrist^ tfie son of
perdition, i/ie open adversary of God, and an abo-
mifiation standing in the twly place!'

Remaining firm in his rejection of Romish error
and refusal to bow down to the Papacy, Lord
Cobham was condemned to death as a heretic.

John Fox tells us that on the day appointed for
his death, in the year 14 17, Lord Cobham was
brought out of the Tower of London, "with his
arms bound behind him, having a very cheerful
countenance. Then he was laid upon a hurdle,
and so drawn forth into St. Giles' Fields, where
they had set up a new pair of gallows. As he
was coming to the place of execution, and was
taken from the hurdle, he fell down devoutly upon
his knees, desiring Almighty God to forgive his
enemies. Then stood he up and beheld the mul-
titude, exhorting them in most godly manner to
follow the laws of God written in the Scriptures,
and in any wise to beware of such teachers as
they see contrary to Christ in their conversation
and living; with many other special counsels.
Then lie was tianged up there by the middle^ in
chains of iron^ and so consumed alive in the firc^
praising the name of God as long as his life lasted!'

i

2 20 Romanism and the Reformation.

In other words, he was roasted to death. They
were binnied^ burned^ these blessed men of God!
Huss was burned ; Jerome was burned ; Lord
Cobham was burned. Even Wicliffe's bones were
dug up, forty-one years after his death, and burned.
Savonarola, who preached with trumpet tongue
that Rome was Babylon, was burned. All these
were burned before the Reformation, and thou-
sands more. They were bunicdy but their words
were not burned ! Their testimo7iy was not burned!
It lived on ! Fire could not scorch it ; chains could
not bind it ; gags could not silence it ; gaols could
not stifle it; swords could not slay it; nought
could destroy it. Truth is immortal, truth is
unconquerable. Imprison it, and it comes forth
free ; bury it, and it rises again ; crush it to the
earth, and it springs up victorious, purer for the
conflict, nobler for the victory.

The truth to which these confessors witnessed
sprang up again a century later, and rolled over
Europe the tremendous tide of the Reformation.

And wJience came this testimony which no power
could repress ? Whence came this testimony, trum-
pet-tongued, that Rome, in all its myriad-handed
might, was impotent to silence or arrest ? Whence
came it, but fro7n that sacred volume^ writ in
gloomy prisons, in lands of captivity, in scenes of

Pre- Reformation Interpreters. 221

exile, for the guidance, the preservation, the sup-
port of God^s suffering saints and faithful witnesses
in every age ! Daniel the captive, Paul the
prisoner, John the exile, — such were its inspired
authors ; men whose piercing vision looked down
the long vista of the Church's conflicts, marked
her martyrdoms, and saw her triumphs from afar.

Oh, word of divinely given prophecy ! oh,
wondrous volume, whose seven seals the Lamb
has loosed and opened to meet the moral and
spiritual needs of the suffering Church He loves
so well! how have thy solemn utterances, thy
mysterious symbols, been scanned and studied by
earnest, saintly eyes ! hoiv hast t/wu been pondered
in prisons^ remembered on racks^ repeated in tJu
flames! Thy texts arc windows through which
the light shines from the third heaven down into
the darkest depths of earth's conflicts, mysteries,
and woes. Oh, sacred and sanctifying truth ! how
have thy words been watered with the tears of
suffering saints, steeped in their griefs and sorrows,
and dyed in the copious streaming of their blood !
Precious are the lives which have sealed thee;
precious the truth those lives have sealed ! Thy
words have been wings by which the persecuted
Church has soared from the wilderness and the
battlefield into the pure serene of everlasting love

22 2 Romanism and the Reformation,

and peace ! Like a bright angel, thou art heaven
descended, and leadest to the skies. By thee has
God guided to their glorious consummation the
noble army of saints^ confessors^ martyrs^ shining
round His throne like the everlasting stars. Tlicy
are gone into that world of glory— for ever gone ;
but tfie light zuhich led them there remains behind I
We cannot touch them ; they have vanished from
the sight of men like the prophet whose chariot to
heaven was the winged flame ! We cannot hear the
music of their harpings, or the thunder of their
song ; but we still grasp tJie book they loved, zuhich
made them all they were, and all they are. Ye
Waldenses, from the lonely, blood-stained Alps ;
ye nameless victims of the dreadful Inquisition ;
ye noble Protestants before the Reformation,
Wicliffe, HusSy ferome, Cobham, Savonarola, — we
possess the holy pages which ye pondered, the
words of truth and life ye sealed with martyr
blood ! Be those words to us what they were to
you; let them be our inspiration and our testi-
mony, and the testimony of our children after us,
till the hour when trutli, emancipated from all
trammels, shall shine through the world in its
unclouded splendour, and error and superstition
and falsehood from its presence shall for ever flee
away!

LECTURE VI.

INTERPRETATION AND USE OF THESE PRO-
PHECIES IN REFORMATION TIMES.

'THHE sixteenth century presents the spectacle
-*• of a stormy sunrise after a dismal night.
Europe awoke from the long sleep of superstition.
Nations shook off her chains. The dead arose.
The witnesses to truth who had been silenced and
slain stood up once more and renewed their testi-
mony. The martyred confessors reappeared in
the Reformers. There was a cleansing in the
spiritual sanctuary. Civil and religious liberty
were inaugurated. The discovery of printing and
revival of learning accelerated the movement.
There was progress everywhere. Columbus struck
across the ocean and opened a new hemisphere to
view. Rome was shaken on her seven hills, and
lost one-half of her dominions. Protestant nations
were created. The modern world was called into
existence.

The sixteenth century was the age of the Re-
formation. The Church had become frightfully

393

224 Romanism and the Reformation.

deformed ; it needed to be thoroughly re-formed.
It had departed from the faith ; it needed to be
brought back to it It needed a restoration of
non-apostate Christianity. A reassertion was re-
quired of rights Divine and human. The Papacy
had subverted both the government of God and
the liberties of man. Its central principle involves
the expulsion from tJie world of its rightful Ruler
and Saviour^ and substitutes for Him a dynasty of
blasphemous usurpers. And it involves equally
tlie destruction of all man's noblest rights. It
denies to him his lawful access to his Maker.
A fellow mortal, a pretended priest, stands in
the way, and blocks the path of eternal life.
He stands across the sunshine of God*s love, and
casts upon the trembling human spirit a deadly
shade. He claims to have the keys of heaven
and hell. He thunders lying anathemas, and
forbids mankind to approach the throne of infinite
mercy save through him, and then only just so
far as he permits. Thus Christ is eclipsed, salva-
tion is stolen ; the Papal priest is substituted for
the Saviour of sinners, the mystery of iniquity
for the mystery of godliness, the proud pope of
Rome for the holy Prince of Peace, poison for
food ; and Satan himself is palmed upon the
Church of Jesus Christ as her head and husband.

Interpretation of tJie Reformers. 225

What a cursed system ! Thought can scarcely
fathom the abyss of evil which it creates! It
arrests the flowing of heaven's waters in the wil-
derness, and turns the streams of life to stagnant,
putrid blood. It arrests the shining of heaven's
holy light, the illuminating influence of gospel
truth, and plunges the world in gloom and dark-
ness so gross that they may be felt. It arrests
the healing hand of Divine grace and forgiveness,
and substitutes for it the polluting touch of priestly
Angers, stained and contaminated with lust, hypo-
crisy, and blood. It cJianges grace^ that sweet and
sacred mystery, spiritual, holy, not of the earth,
free, oh, how free, and how Divine ! for it is the
Spirit's influence, — it changes this into a mystical
abomination^ an insufferable compound^ a something
manipulated by tlie fingers of hypocrites, " minis-
tered," as they say, through sacraments, and sacra-
ments of their own invention and management.
Seven sacraments, forsooth ! A something trans-
mitted too through a generation of pretended
vicars of Jesus Christ, and their agents, and doled
out by them to a dying world for pecuniary consider-
ations ! Do they not blush to perpetuate such
damnable deceptions ? Have the eternal interests
of men no value in their eyes > Is tfie grace of God
to be transmuted to a vile atrrency, that it may be

Q

226 Romanism and the Reformation.

deposited in the pockets of priests^ and ciradated by
them as base coin is by rogues and vagabonds ?
Is conscience utterly dead within them ? Dead ?
It is as good as dead ; " seared with a hot iron,"
till it has lost the sense of right and wrong, and
can no longer feel the infamy of doctrines and
deeds which would have made the men of Sodom
blush with shame. A system which travesties the
truth, hardens the conscience, enslaves the mind,
corrupts the heart, which buries the Bible, pro-
stitutes the ministry, profanes the sacraments, per-
secutes the saints, betrays and butchers the flock
of Christ, and outrages all that is sacred and all
that is Divine, — deserves and demands to be ex-
posed, detested, judged, destroyed, and swept out
of an injured world.

And God raised up the Reformation to do this
work of protest, exposure, condemnation, and de-
liverance. To restore to men His word, to restore
to them their rights, to open the eyes of nations,
to raise them and make them stand upon their feet
as responsible and free, to roll off their spirits the
dark incubus, the eternal nightmare of priestly
imposture and tyranny, to re-establish the or-
dinances and privileges of pure and primitive
religion ; such was the work of the Reformation
which God wrought in Europe three centuries ago.

Interpretation of the Reformers. 227

He who had raised up the prophets and apostles
in olden times, He who raised up confessors and
witnesses in the middle ages, raised up reformers
in the sixteenth century, Honlike men, to undertake
this mighty enterprise and accomplish this glorious
work. There was that lion Luther^ who shook
Rome and Europe with his roar; and that lion
Tyndale, who wrenched the Bible from the priests
and gave it to us here in England in our own
mother tongue, though it cost him his life to do
it; and that Swiss lion Zwingle, who fell on the
battlefield ; and that lion of Picardy, John Calvin,
who rose in his strength and majesty when
Zwingle fell ; and that lion John Knox of Scot-
land, who feared not the face of man, and turned
not aside for any : these, and such as these, were
the men through whom God overthrew in Ger-
many, in Switzerland, in France, in England,
Scotland, and Holland, the diabolical power and
dominion of the Papacy.

We wish to invite your special attention to the
fact that the convictions of the Reformers with
reference to the character of the Papal Church,
and the duty of separation from it, were largely
derived from their study and interpretation of the
prophetic Scriptures. We invite you to consider
the manner in which the Reformers interpreted

■^ ■ ^1 1

228 Romanism and the Reformation.

the prophecies bearing upon the Papal apostasy,
the practical use which they made of them, and
the power which these prophecies exerted in
directing and sustaining the great work of the
Reformation. To the Reformers Rome was
the " Babylon " of the Apocalypse, and the Papal
pontiff the predicted " man of sin." Separation
from the Church of Rome and from its pontifical
head was regarded by them as a sacred duty.
They urged on all Christian persons within the
Church of Rome the apocalyptic command,
" Come out of her, My people, that ye be not par-
takers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues." To them separation from Rome was
not separation from Christ, but from antichrist.
This was the principle upon which they began
and proseaited the work of the Reformation, the
principle which directed and supported them, and
rendered them invincible.

Take first the case of the reformer Luther.
Early in the year 1520, he wrote to Spalatinus
thus : " I am extremely distressed in my mind. I
have not much doubt but the pope is the real
antichrist. The lives and conversation of the
popes, their actions, their decrees, all agree most
wonderfully to the descriptions of him in Holy
Writ."

Interpretation of the Reformers. 229

In the autumn of the same year he printed a
treatise on the *^ Babylonish Captivity of the Church^
Such was the title. In this he exposed the impos-
ture of indulgences; he showed that their object
is to rob men of money by the perversion of
the gospel. In this animated production Luther
called the Papacy ^' the kingdom of Babylon.^'
Meanwhile Leo X. published his famous damna-
tory bull against Luther, containing extracts from
his works, and forbidding all persons to read his
writings on pain of excommunication ; command-
ing those who possessed his works to burn them ;
excommunicating Luther as an obstinate heretic
delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,
and commanding all secular princes, under pain
of incurring the same censures and forfeiting all
their dignities, to seize his person, that he might
be punished as his crimes deserved.

In October of the same year, Luther wrote to
Spalatinus : '' At last the Roman bull is come, and
Eckius is the bearer of it. I treat it with con-
tempt. You see that the expressed doctrines of
Christ Himself are here condemned. I feel myself
now more at liberty ^ being assured tliat tite popedom
is antichristian and tlte seat of Satan**

On December ist he published two tracts in
answer to the bull, one of which was entitled.

230 Rofnanism and the Reformation.

^^ Martin Luther against tJie Execrable Bull of
Antichrist^ In its conclusion he admonishes the
pope and his cardinals no longer to persevere in
madness, "//t? longer to act tlie undoubted part oft/ie
antichrist of the Scriptures^^

On December loth in the same year, 1520,
Luther called together the professors and students
in the town of Wittemberg, and publicly burned
the Papal bull. Along with it he burned the
canon law, the decretals, the Clementines, and the
cxtravagants of the popes.

The die was now cast Luther had declared
war against the Roman pontiff. He had " boldly
denominated him the man of sin, and exhorted all
Christian princes to shake off his usurpations."
In this manner was the Reformation inaugu-
rated.

In order to justify his action, Luther selected
thirty articles from the code of Papal laws, as
illustrating the contents of the books he had con-
sumed. These he printed with pointed remarks,
calling on the people to use their own judgment
with reference to them. He sums up by saying,
that on comparing the different parts of the canon
law, its language simply amounts to this : " that the
pope is God on earth above all that is earthly,
temporal, or spiritual ; that all things belong to the

Interpretation of the Reformers. 231

pope, and that no one must venture to say, What
doest thou ? "

Here is an old black-letter copy of Luther's
"Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians."
Under the expression in the second verse, "the
Churches of Galatia," he says, " Wheresoever the
substance of the holy sacraments remaineth, there
is the holy Church, altliough antichrist there reigtis^
who, as tlie Scripture witnesseth^ sitteth not in a
stable of fiends^ or in a swine-sty ^ or in a company
of infidels^ but in the higfiest and Iwliest place of all^
namely y in tlie temple of God^

Again he exclaims : " Is not this to sit in the
temple of God, to profess himself to be ruler in
the whole Church ? What is the temple of God ?
Is it stones and wood ? Did not Paul say. The
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are ?
To sit — wliat is it but to reign^ to teach, and to
Judge? Who from the beginning of the Church
has dared to call himself master of the whole
Church but the pope alone ? None of the saints,
none of the heretics hath ever uttered so horrible
a word of pride." ^

Elsewhere again he says,^ that when Daniel
** saw the terrible wild beast which had ten horns,

» " Works,'' vol. ii., p. 385.
' Ibid.<i vol. ii., p. 386.

232 Romanism and the Reformation.

which by the consent of all is the Roman empire,
he also beheld another small horn come up in the
middle of them. This is the Papal power^ which
rose up in the middle of the Roman empire."

Thus did Luther interpret prophecy ; and under
the influence of these interpretations of the pro-
phetic teachings of Daniel, Paul, and John sprang
up and advanced the glorious Reformation of the
sixteenth century.

One of the witnesses of Luther s disputation at
Leipsic in the year 1519 was Philip MelanchtJwn^
the learned professor of Greek at Wittemberg.
Melanchthon was a man of wonderful ability and
application. The treatment of the most difficult
subjects became simple in his hands. He was one
of the greatest theologians of his age, and com-
posed the celebrated Confession of Augsburg in
1530, the foundation of the reformed German
faith. As this Confession was intended to be
publicly read to the hostile Roman Catholic
emperor Charles V., in the presence of princes
and ecclesiastical dignitaries, Melanchthon toned
it down as far as possible, avoiding all judgments
of the Roman Catholic Church which could cause
offence. Luther complained of this omission.
** Satan sees clearly," said he, " that your apology
has passed lightly over the articles of purgatory.

Interpretation of the Reformers. 233

the worship of saints, and above all of the pope
and of antichrist^ ^

Melanchthon lacked the bold spirit of Luther,
but he shared most of his sentiments. He was
clear in his convictions that Rome is the Babylon
of the Apocalypse, and the pope the man of sin.^
In his disputation on marriage, referring to the
first Epistle to Timothy, he says, " Since it is
most certain that the pontiffs and the monks
have forbidden marriage, it is most manifest^ and
without any doubt true^ tJiat tJie Roman pontiffs with
his whole order and kingdom^ is tlie very anti-
christ? He adds : " Likewise in 2 Thessalonians
ii., Paul clearly says that the man of sin shall
rule in the Church, exalting himself against the
worship of God, etc. But it is manifest that
the popes do rule in the Church, and under title
of the Church in defending idols. W/ierefore I
affirm tJiat no heresy hath arism^ nor indeed shall
be^ with which titese descriptions of Paul can more
truly and certainly accord and agree than to this
Papal kingdom'' *

* See D'Aubign^'s " History of the Reformation," book
xiv., chap. viii.

^ " Works," vol. iv., p. 537.

2 " Quod Romanus pontifex, cum universo ordine suo et
regno, sit ipsissimus antichristuSy^ etc. (" Works," vol. iv.,

p. 537).
^ " Quare affirmo, nullam unquam extitisse hscresin, neque

234 Ronanisnt and tJie Reformation.

He further adds in the same disputation (article
2S): "The prophet Daniel also attributes these
two things to antichrist ; viz, that he shall place
an idol in the temple, and honour it with gold and
silver, and that he shall not honour women. That
both these things belong to the Roman pontiff,
who does not clearly see ? The idols are clearly
the impious mass, the worship of saints, and the
statues which are exhibited in gold and silver that
they may be worshipped."

The Reformation begun in Switzerland by
Zwingle, who was previously canon and priest of
Zurich, and carried on by OEcolampadius, Bullin-
ger, and others, produced the Helvetic Confession^
drawn up at Basle by reformed Swiss theologians,
in 1536. This Confession, after being accepted and
signed by the reformed cantons and towns, was
sent to the Lutheran divines assembled at Smal-
kaldm 1537. In both the Helvetic and Smalkald
Confessions the Papacy is condemned as the pre-
dicted antichristian power.^

adeo futuram esse, cui verius et certius ha2 Pauli descrip-
tiones, convenire ac competere queant atque huic pontificio
regno." — " Works," vol. iv., p. 537.

* " Art. Smalc. S. 347 : Constat, Romanos pontifices cum
suis membris defendere impiam doctrinam et impios cultus.
Ac plane notae antichristi competunt in regnum papas et
sua membra. Paulus enim ad Thessalonicenses dcscribens
ANTICHRISTUM, vocat eum adversarium Christi, extoUentem

Interpretation of Ihe Refornurs. *> '^

-OD

The same great doctrine is taught in the valu-
able Bohemian Confession of 1573, which was com-
posed of four Confessions of more ancient date.

John Calvin^ that mighty theologian and
reformer, whose works are published in fifty
volumes, uttered upon this subject no uncertain
sound. In his letter to the emperor Charles V.,
on the necessity of reforming the Church, he
wrote as follows : " The arrogance of antichrist of
which Paul speaks is, that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
For wlure is tlie vuomparable majesty of God after
mortal man has been exalted to such a height that
his laws take precedence of God's eternal decrees ?

se super omne, quod dicitur aut colitur Deus, sedentem in
templo Dei, tanquam Deum. Loquitur igitur de aliquo
regnante in ecclesia, non de regibus ethnicis : et hunc vocat
adversarium Christi, quia doctrinam pugnantcm cum evan-
gelio excogitaturus sit, et is arrogabit sibi auctoritatem
divinam. Primum autem constat, papam regnare in ecclesid,
et praetextu ecclesiastical auctoritatis et ministerii sibi hoc
regnum constituisse.

"... Deinde doctrina papae multipliciter pugnat cum
evangelio, et arrogat sibi papa auctoritatem divinam tripli-
citer : primum quia . . ., secundo quia . . ., tertio
quia ... Hoc autem est se Deum facere, nolle ab
ecclesii aut ab ullo judicari. . . . Haec quum ita sint,
cavere omnes Christiani debent, nc fiant participes impiai
doctrinae, blasphemiarum et injustac crudelitatis papac. Ideo
papam cum suis membris, tanquam regnum antichristi,
deserere et exsecrarr debent."

236 Romanism and the Reformation.

I omit that the apostle describes the prohibitions
of meats and of marriage as a doctrine of devils ;
that is surely bad enough: but the crowning
impiety is to set man in a higher rank than God.
If t/iey deny the truth of my statement y I appeal to
fact.** He goes on, " What are those two laws of
celibacy and auricular confession but dire mur-
derers of souls ? " At the conclusion of his letter
to the emperor, he says : " I deny that see to be
apostolical wherein nought is seen but a shocking
apostasy ; / deny him to be the vicar of Christ wlio
in furiously persecuting the gospel demonstrates by
his conduct t/iat lie is antichrist ; I deny him to
be the successor of Peter who is doing his utmost
to demolish every edifice that Peter built ; and I
deny him to be the head of the Church who by
his tyranny lacerates and dismembers the Church,
after dissevering her from Christ, her true and only
head."

In his "Institutes of the Christian Religion"^
Calvin again defends the view that the Roman
pontiff is antichrist " To some," he says, " we
seem slanderous and petulant when we call the
Roman pontiff antichrist; but those who think
so perceive not that t/uy are bringing a cliarge of
intemperance against Paul, after whom we speak^

* Book iv. 25.

Interpretation of the Reformers. 237

nay^ in wliose very words we speak, . . . Paul
says that antichrist would sit in the temple of
God. . . . Hence we infer that his tyranny is
more over souls than bodies, a tyranny set up in
opposition to the spiritual kingdom of God. . . .
When he adds that in his own time the mystery of
iniquity, which was afterwards to be openly mani-
fested, had begun to work in secret, we thereby
understand that this calamity was neitlier to be in-
troduced by one nian^ nor to terminate in one man.
Moreover, when the mark by which he distin-
guishes antichrist is that he would rob God of
His honour and take it to himself, he gives the
leading feature which we ought to follow in search-
ing out antichrist, especially when pride of this
description proceeds to the open devastation of the
Church. Seeing then it is certain that the Roman
pontiff luxs impudently transferred to himself the
most peailiar properties of God and Christy there
cannot be a doubt that he is the leader and
standard bearer of an impious and abominable
kingdom."

Take now the testimony of William Tyndale,
Here are several volumes containing the doctrines
and treatises of that famous minister, reformer, and
martyr, who first translated the New Testament
from Greek into English. See how plainly this

238 Romanism and the Reformation.

learned and honest man spoke out on the anti-
christian character of the Papacy. "Antichrist,"
he says, " in another manner hath sent forth his
disciples, those false anointed of which Christ
warneth us before, that they should come and
show miracles and wonders, even to bring the very
elect out of the way if it were possible. . . .
A bishop must be faultless, the husband of one
wife. Nay, saith the pope, the husband of no wife,
but the holder of as many women as he listeth.
What saith the pope ? I command to read the
gospel in Latin. ... It is verily as good to
preach to swine as to men, if thou preach it in a
tongue they understand not. • . . Well, saith
the pope, if they will not be ruled, cite them to
appear, and pose them sharply what they hold of
the pope's power, of his pardons, his bulls, of
purgatory, of ceremonies, of confessions. . . .
If they miss in any point, make heretics of them
and burn them. . . . Tfie emperors and kings
are no ot/ier now-a-days but even hangmen unto t/te
popes and bis/iops, to kilt whomsoever tfiey condemn^
witlwut any more ado ; as Pilate was unto the
scribes and Pharisees and high bishops, to hang
Christ. . . . What signifieth that the prelates
are so bloody, and clothed in red .^ That they
be ready every hour to suffer martyrdom for the

Interpretation of the Reformers. 239

testimony of God's word ? Is that also not a false
sign, when no man dare for them once open his
mouth to ask a question of God's word, because
they are ready to burn him ? ... Is not that
shepherd's hook, the bishop's crosier, a false sign ?
Is not that white rochet that the bishops and
canons wear, so like a nun and so effeminately, a
false sign ? What other things are their sandals,
gloves, mitres, and all the whole pomp of their
disguising, than false signs, in which Paul pro-
phesies that they should come ? And as Christ
warned us to beware of wolves in lambs' skins, and
bade us to look rather unto their fruits and deeds
tlian to wonder at tluir disgtdsingSy run throughout
all our holy religions, and thou shalt find them
likewise all clothed in falsehood."

In his exposition of the famous passage about
antichrist in the First Epistle of John, Tyndale
says : " Though the Bishop of Rome and his sects
give Christ these names (His rightful names), yet
in that they rob Him of the effect, and take the
signification of His names unto themselves, and
make of Him but a hypocrite, as they themselves
be, they be t/ie right antichrists, and deny both the
Fatlier and the Son; for they deny the witness
that the Father bore unto His Son, and deprive
the Son of all the power and glory that His Father

240 Romanism and the Reformation.

gave Him. For 'whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father/ for * no man knoweth
the Father but the Son, and to whom the Son
showeth Him.' Moreover, if thou know not the
mercy that God hath showed thee in Christ, thou
canst not know Him as a Father. Thou maycst
well, apart from Christ, know Him as a tyrant, and
thou mayest know Him by His works as the old
philosophers did, that there is a God ; but thou
canst neither believe in His mercy nor love His
laws — which is the only worship in the spirit, —
save by Christ."

All the other English reformers, including
Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, Bradford, and Jewell,
held the pope of Rome to be the man of sin. So
did John Knox in Scotland ; and he sounded out
his testimony on this subject as with a trumpet.
Here is an old copy of Knox's " History of the
Reformation." Its contents are thus described on
the title-page : " The manner, and by what persons,
the light of Christ's gospel has been manifested
into this realm after that horrible and universal
defection from the truth which has come by the
means of that Roman antichrist^

Knox begins his history by giving a list of the
articles of faith attributed to the Lollards of Kyle,
taken from the register of Glasgow. Of these the

Interpretation of the Reformers, 241

thirty-second article runs thus : " Tliat the pope is
the head of tlie Kirk of antichrist^ After describing
the affecting martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton —
whose dying words were, " Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit ! how long shall darkness overwhelm this
realm? how long wilt Thou suffer this tyranny
of men ? " — he tells how he himself was led to
undertake the public preaching of God's word. In
the year 1547 Knox, wearied of removing from
place to place by reason of persecution, came to
the Castle of St. Andrews, resolved to leave Scot-
land for Germany. Here he took the part of a
godly preacher named John Rough against Dean
Annan, a Romanist. Knox wielded his pen with
such effect that Annan was beaten from all his
defences, and was compelled to take shelter under
the authority of the Church, which authority, he
said, "damned all Lutherans and heretics, and
therefore he needed no further disputation." To
this Knox answered : " Before we hold ourselves,
or that ye can prove us, sufficiently convinced, we
must define the Church by the right notes given to
us in God's Scripture of the true Church ; we must
discern the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ from
the mother of confusion, spiritual Babylon, lest
that impudently we embrace a harlot instead of
the chaste spouse ; yea, to speak in plain words,

R

242 Romanism and the Reformation.

lest that we submit ourselves to Satan, thinking
that we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ. For, as
for your Roman Churchy as it is notu corrupted^
. . . / no more doubt but that it is t/ie synagogue
of Satan, and the head t/tereof called t/te pope, to be
tJie man of sin of wliom the apostle speaketh, than
tJiat I doubt tJuit Jesus Christ suffered by the pro-
curement of the visible Church of Jeruscdem. Yea,
I offer myself by word or writing to prove the
Roman Church this day further degenerate from
the purity which was in the days of the apostles,
than was the Church of the Jews from the ordi-
nances given by Moses when they consented to
the innocent death of Jesus Christ." Knox tells
us that these words were "spoken in the open
audience of the parish church of St Andrews,"
after Dean Annan's delivery. The people, hearing
the offer, urged Knox to lay his proofs before
them in a public speech, saying that if Knox was
right, they had been miserably deceived. Knox
consented, and was appointed to preach the follow-
ing Sunday. On that day, he tells us, he preached
his first sermon, taking his text from ttie seventh
chapter of Daniel. He gives us an outline of its
contents. It opened with a " short discourse " on
the four empires — the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian,
and Roman — as set forth by the four wild beasts

Interpretation of the Reformers. 243

of the seventh chapter of Daniel, and then showed
that the persecuting "little horn'* of the fourth
empire was identical with the man of sin and
antichrist, and signified the Roman Papacy. For
this sermon Knox was called to account before a
convention of **grey friars and black fiends," as
he calls them. Nine articles were laid against him.
Of these the first was that he had taught that " no
mortal man can be head of the Church " ; and the
second that "the pope is an antichrist, and so
is no member of Christ's mystical body." Knox
gives an account of his argument with the friars
on this occasion, in which he evidently had the
best of it. Thus was launched the Reformation in
Scotland, and Knox's sermon in St. Andrews on
the " little horn " of prophecy struck its key-note
and started its testimony.

The English reformers were no less clear in
their views and emphatic in their teachings.
Ridley thus expresses himself: "The see of Rome
is the seat of Satan, and the bishop of ttu same,
iJiat maintaineth the abominations thereof ^ is anti-
christ himself indeed; and for the same causes this
see at this day is the same that St. John calls, in
his Revelation, Babylon, or the whore of Babylon,
and spiritual Sodom and Egypt, the mother of
fornications and abominations upon earth."

244 Romanism and the Reformation.

Latimer, when examined by the commissioners
on his trial, said : ** I confess there is a Catholic
Church, to the determination of which I stand, but
not the Church which you call Catholic, which
sooner might be called diabolic." In his second
conference with Ridley he says : " Yea, what
fellowship hath Christ with antichrist ? therefore
it is not lawful to bear the yoke with Papists.
* Come forth from among them, and separate your-
selves from them, saith the Lord.* "

Bishop Jeivell wrote a most masterly and power-
ful commentary on Thessalonians, proving the
pope of Rome to be the man of sin. Here is a
copy of it. Take as a specimen the following
sentences about antichrist: "Some say that he
should be a Jew of the tribe of Dan ; some that
he should be born in Babylon ; . . . some that
Mahomed is antichrist ; . . . some that Nero was
antichrist ; some that he should be born of a friar
and a nun ; some that he should continue but three
years and a half; some that he should turn trees
upside down with the tops to the ground, and
should force the roots to grow upwards, and then
should flee up into heaven and fall down and break
his neck. These tales have been craftily devised
to beguile our eyes, that whilst we think upon
these guesses, and so occupy ourselves in be/wlding

Interpretation of the Reformers. 245

a shadow^ or probably conjecture of antichrist, tie
which is antichrist indeed may unawares deceive us.

" He will come in the name of Christ, yet will
he do all things against Christ and under pretence
and colour of serving Christ ; he shall devour the
sheep and people of Christ ; he shall deface what-
soever Christ hath taught ; he shall quench that
fire which Christ hath kindled ; those plants which
Christ hath planted he shall root up; he shall
undermine that house which Christ hath built ; he
shall be contrary to Christ, his faith contrary to
the faith of Christ, and his life contrary to the life
of Christ. . . .

" Christ was humble and lowly. The prophet,
in his own person, speaks of Him, Psalm xxii. : * I
am a worm, and not a man ; a shame of men, and
the contempt of the people.* And the apostle
saith, Philippians ii. : * He humbled Himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.* Behold His parents, His birth, His cradle ;
behold His life. His disciples. His doctrine, and
His death ; all were witnesses unto His humility.
He saith of Himself, *The Son of man hath not
where to rest His head*; and to His disciples
He saith, * The kings of the Gentiles reign over
them, and they that bear rule over them are
called gracious lords; but ye shall not be so.*

246 Romanism and the Reformation.

And again, ' Learn of Me ; for I am meek and
lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your
souls.'

" Now, on the other part, take view of antichrist
Behold his birth, his place, his chair, his estate, his
doctrine, his disciples ; and all his life you shall see
nothing but pomp and glory. Gregory calls him
the king of pride. He is proud in life, proud in
doctrine, proud in word, and proud in deeds ; he
is like Lucifer, and sets himself before his brethren,
and over nations and kingdoms.

" He makes every knee to bow down to him and
worship him ; he makes kings to bring him water,
to carry his train, to hold his cup, to bear his dish,
to lead his bridle, and to hold his stirrup ; he
claims power over heaven and earth ; he saith he
is lord over all the world, the lord of lords and the
king of kings ; that his authority reaches up into
heaven and down into hell ; that he can command
the angels of God ; that he condemns whom he
will condemn ; that he makes saints at his pleasure;
that whatsoever he blesses is blessed, and that
whatsoever he curses is cursed.

"He sells merits, the forgiveness of sins, the
sacrifice for the quick and the dead ; he makes
merchandise of the souls of men; he lays filthy
hands upon the Lord's anointed ; he removes

)

Interpretation of the Reformers. 247

kings and deposes the states and princes of the
world. This is antichrist ; this is his power. Thus
shall he work and make himself. So shall he sit
in the temple of God. The people shall wonder
at him, and shall have him in reverence; they
shall say, Who is like unto the beast ? who is so
wise, so mighty, so godly, so virtuous, so holy, so
like unto God ? — so intolerable and monstrous shall
be his pride."

Listen now to the dying testimony upon this
subject of the well-known reformer Archbisliop
Cranmer. Let me read you the words he spoke
just before his martyrdom : "Forasmuch as I am
come to the last end of my life, whereupon all
hangeth of my life past and of my life to come,
either to live with my master Christ for ever in
joy, or else to be in pain for ever with wicked
devils in hells, and I see before mine eyes pre-
sently either heaven ready to receive me, or else
hell ready to swallow me up, / sJiall therefore de-
clare unto you my very faithy how I believe^ without
any colour or dissimulation ; for now it is no time
to dissemble, whatsoever I have said or written in
time past." Having briefly expressed the chief
articles of his faith, he refers to his previous
recantation in the following terms : " And now I
come to the great thing that so much troubleth my

248 Romanism and the Reformation.

conscience more than anything I ever did or said
in my whole life, and that is the setting abroad of
a writing contrary to the truth, which now here I
renounce and refuse, as things written with my
hand contrary to the truth which I thought in my
heart, and which was written for fear of death, and
to save my life if it might be ; and that is all such
bills and papers which I have written or signed
with my hand since my degradation, wherein I
have written many things untrue. And forasmuch
as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart,
my Jtand sJiall first be punished tturefore ; for, may
I come to tJie fire, it shall first be burned ; and as
for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy, and
antichrist, with all /Us false doctrines**

On uttering this, Cranmer was pulled down from
the stage and led to the fire. Having put off his
outer garments, he stood there in a shirt which
hung down to his feet His beard was long and
thick, and covered his bosom. Then was an iron
chain tied about him, and the fire set to the
faggots. When these were kindled, and the fire
began to burn near him, stretching out his arm he
put his right hand into the flame, holding it t/iere
ipvnovable. Thus did he stand, moving no more
than the stake to which he was bound. His eyes
were lifted to heaven, and often he repeated.

Interpretation of the Reformers. 249

** This hand hath offended ; oh, this unworthy right
hand ! " At last, in the greatness of the flame, he
cried, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ! " and gave
up the ghost.

" Antichrist, which now by the will of God doth
rage for the trial of our faith, doth nothing else
but procure us a ready horse to bring us unto
heaven." So said that holy man John Bradford ;
" brother Bradford," as Ridley called him. And
he too was burned. Wlun led to the stake^ he took a
faggot in his hand and kissed it^ rejoicing to suffer
death in the cause of Christ. Standing then by
the stake, with both hands uplifted, he cried, " O
England, England ! repent thee of thy sins ; re-
pent thee of thy sins ; beware of idolatry ; bezvare
of t lie false antichrists ; take heed they do not deceive
theer

Cranmer, Ridley^ Latimer ^ and Bradford were
burned for their testimony against the Papal anti-
christ, just as Huss and Jerome and Cobham had
been before. Thousands of martyrdoms have
sealed this testimony, and on this testimony rests the
Reformation, To reject this testimony is to reject
the foundation of that work ; it is to reject the
foundation of the noblest and divinest work which
has been wrought in this world since the day of
Pentecost.

250 Romanism and the Reformation.

Do not misunderstand me. I do not say that
the teachings of Scripture prophecy form the sole
foundation of the Reformation. The doctrinal and
practical ivMihs of Scripture guided the action of
the reformers as well as the prophetic. They
opposed the Church of Rome, as condemned alike
by the doctrines^ the precepts^ and tJte prophecies of
the word of God. It might be difficult to say
which of the three weighed with them most.
On each they were clear and emphatic. These
three elements cannot be separated in estimating
the springs of the Reformation. From the first,
and throughout, that movement was energised and
guided by the prophetic word. Luther never felt
strong and free to war against the Papal apostasy
till he recognised the pope as antichrist It was
then he burned the Papal bull. Kno^s first
sermon, the sermon which launched him on his
mission as a reformer, was on the prophecies con-
cerning the Papacy. The reformers embodied
their interpretations of prophecy in their confes-
sions of faith, and Calvin in his " Institutes." All
the reformers were unanimous in the matter ; even
the mild and cautious Melanchthon was as assured
of the antipapal meaning of these prophecies as
was Luther himself. And their interpretation of
these prophecies determined their reforming action.

Interpretation of the Reformers. 251

It led them to protest against Rome with extra-
ordinary strength and undaunted courage. It
nerved them to resist the claims of that apostate
Church to the uttermost. It made them martyrs ;
it sustained them at the stake. And the views
of the reformers were shared by thousands,
by hundreds of thousands. They were adopted
by princes and peoples. Under their influence
nations abjured their allegiance to the false priest
of Rome. In the reaction which followed, all the
powers of hell seemed to be let loose upon the
adherents of the Reformation. War followed war ;
tortures, burnings, and massacres were multiplied.
Yet the Reformation stood undefeated and un-
conquerable. God's word upheld it, and the
energies of His almighty spirit. It was the work
of Christ as truly as the founding of the Church
eighteen centuries ago ; and the revelation of the
future which He gave from heaven — that prophetic
book with which the Scripture closes — was one of
the mightiest instruments employed in its accom-
plishment.

To resist the use to which Scripture prophecy
was put by the reformers is no light or unimpor-
tant matter. The system of prophetic interpretation
known as Futurism does resist this use. It con-
demns the interpretation of the reformers. It con-

252 Romanism and the Reformation.

demns the views of all these men, and of all the
martyrs, and of all the confessors and faithful wit-
nesses of Christ for long centuries. It condemns
the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the WiclifRtes,
the Hussites, the Lollards, the Lutherans, the
Calvinists ; it condemns them all, and upon a point
upon which they are all agreed^ an interpretation of
Scripture which they embodied in their solemn
confessions and sealed with their blood. It con-
demns the spring of their action, the foundation
of the structure they erected. How daring is this
act, and how destitute of justification ! What an
opposition to the pillars of a work most manifestly
Divine! for it is no less than this, for Futurism
asserts that Luther and all the reformers were
wrong in this fundamental point. And whose in-
terpretation of prophecy does it justify and approve ?
That of the Romanists, Let this be clearly seen.
Rome felt the force of these prophecies, and sought
to evade it. It had no way but to deny their
applicability. It could not deny their existence
in Scripture. They were there plainly enough.
But it denied that these prophecies referred to the
Romish Church and its head. It pushed them
aside. It shifted them from the entire field of
mediaeval and modern history. As to Babylon
the Great, it asserted that it meant Rome pagan.

Interpretation of tJie Reformers, 253

not Rome Papal. Rome pagan shed all the blood
referred to in Revelation xvii., xviii. Rome
Christian had shed none of it. Prophecy was
eloquent about the deeds of the Caesars, but
silent as to those of the popes ; and this though
the persecutions perpetrated by the popes had
exceeded those of the Caesars. Prophecy ex-
pended its strength in warning the Church of the
perils from heathenism which it perfectly under-
stood, and was speechless as to the far greater
perils arising from the Christian apostasy on
which it needed the fullest warning and instruc-
tion. It was eagle-eyed as to dangers from
without, but blind to dangers from within. It
guided and guarded the Church of the three first
centuries, but left the Church of the next tliousand
years and more zvithont a lamp to light it$ footsteps.
As to the prophecies of the man of sin, or anti-
christ, these had nothing to do with the middle
ages, or with the Roman popes, or the long central
centuries of the Church's sorest conflicts ; they
only referred to a diminutive interval in the far
off future, at the end of the world. The man of
sin was only an ephemeral persecutor. His whole
power was to continue but three and a half years.
He was to be a cunning Jew of the tribe of Dan ;
a clever infidel who was to call himself God, and

254 Rontantsm and the Reformation.

set himself up in a Jewish temple at Jerusalem.
Christians had nothing to do with him as such.
A Jew was to do all the mischief. The whole evil
was but a Jewish infidel spasm in the very last
hour of history before the second advent There-
fore the reformers were all wrong in their de-
nunciations of the Papacy. They were foolish,
misguided, unreasonable, fanatical, and the popes
were uncondemned by the voices of the prophets.
Daniel and John said nothing about them. Tlicy
were not the predicted apostates. What though
they did shed the blood of heretics like water, and
drink it like wine, and make themselves drunken
with it, and exalt themselves above kings, and
above the world, and clothe themselves with
wealth and splendour, with purple and scarlet,
gold and pearls ! what though they did sit
supreme upon the seven hills, and ride and rule
the Roman empire in its divided Gothic state, and
use its powers for the persecution of heretics, and
the suppression of what some presumed to call the
gospel of Jesus Christ! The prophecies which
those contemptible reformers and miserable so-
called martyrs said applied to them did nothing
of the sort ; it was folly to suppose they did.
They applied to other people and to other cir-
cumstances. They only applied to paganism and

Interpretation of the Reformers, 255

infidelity: a past and bygone paganism, and a
future shortlived infidelity, and nothing more.
Three centuries in t/ie past^ and three years in the
future^ that was all t/iey had anything to do zvith.
As to tlte fifteen centuries which lay between^ they
had no bearing upon them whatever. Popes
might make themselves easy, and cardinals and
councils and papal princes and priests, inquisitors
and persecutors, Dominicans and Jesuits! The
thunders of prophecy ivere not directed against them^
but against those dead Ccesars, and t/iat unborn Jew,
And so they puffed at the reformers, and scoffed
at the martyrs, and scorned and derided and
despised them, and went on in their proud
tyranny, and abated nothing of their blasphemous
pretensions and bloody persecutions.

Which think you ivere right in their interpre-
tations of Scripture ? Those proud popes, those
cruel inquisitors, those inhuman monsters who
mangled the bodies of holy men and women in
their torture chambers, those sanctimonious mur-
derers who stirred up all the might of Chris-
tendom, from century to century, against the
gospel and against the faithful witnesses of Jesus ;
or those pure and persecuted saints, those faithful
Waldenses and Wicliffites, those earnest Hussites
and Lollards, those self-sacrificing Lutherans and

256 Romanism and the Reformation.

Huguenots, those noble confessors, reformers, and
martyrs ? With one mind and mouth all these
Protestants agreed in the substance of their pro-
test To them Rome was Babylon, and its proud
head the antichrist. Were they all mistaken,
deluded, and their cruel, tyrannical oppressors and
persecutors correct ? What think you ?

Perhaps you say. But was Rome right in
nothing? Must a doctrine be wrong because
Rome holds it? Does not Rome hold the truth
as to the divinity of Christ, and as to some other
points of importance ? I grant Rome holds some
truths. It would have no moral power unless it
did. Even the Mohammedans hold some great
truths, and the heathen also. But mark, this is a
question of Romes judgment concerning herself^ and
the bearing of prophecy on her oivn history and
character. It is here in this judgment that the
Futurist claims that Rome was right, and the
reformers in the wrong. And tlie consequences
are most serious^ for we are living in an age of
revived Papal activity. Not only is the Papacy
exerting an enormous influence in the outside
world, not only has it formulated and decreed its
own infallibility, not only is it attacking Pro-
testantism in its strongholds with every weapon
in its reach, political, civil, religious, but the prin-

Interpretation of the Reformers. 257

ciples and practices of the system it guides and
governs have been introduced into the bosom of
the Protestant Church, and planted seairely within
its ivallsy and are working most disastrously for
its corruption and overthrow. Never was there
a time in the Church's history when she more
needed the barriers which prophecy has erected
for her protection. And now when they are so
sorely needed, they are not to be found. Futurism
has crept into the Protestant Church, and broken
doiun these sacred lualls. Romanists^ Ritualists^
and Protestant Futurists are all agreed as to the
non-applicability of Scripture prophecies to the
Church of Rome and the Papacy. The Roman-
ists are two hundred millions, the Ritualists are
hundreds of thousands, and Protestant Futurists
are many thousands in number. They all deny
these prophecies their place and office. They
remove these barriers. What then is to keep out
the incoming Papal flood } The word of prophecy
in its solemn warnings of the dangers the Church
has to encounter, the foes it has to resist, is
asserted to be silent as to this. Why then should
this be feared ? The reformers were mistaken ;
the popes were right Charles V. and Charles IX.,
Philip of Spain and Mary of England, the Duke
of Alva and Louis XIV., and all the tribe of

S

258 Romanism and the Reformation.

Innocents and Leos, Gregories and Clements,
Pius IV. and Pius IX.,— all these were right
in rejecting the fundamental position that Papal
Rome is Babylon, and its head antichrist ; and all
the reformers, without an exception, were wrong
in maintaining it; they were foolish interpreters
of the "sure word of prophecy," and utterly in
error as to the real testimony of Scripture con-
cerning the Church of Rome.

Is this the position you adopt .^ Is this the
conclusion you defend ? Are these the views you
advocate 1 You, a Protestant, and this after all
that has been written upon the subject, and all the
blaze of light which history and experience have
poured upon it .^ If it is, look to it that you be tiot
found fighting against the truths warring against
the word of God, resisting the testimony of the
prophetic Spirit, hindering the work of the Refor-
mation, promoting the progress of the apostasy,
opposing Christ, and helping antichrist.

Even the Romanists themselves shame you in
their clear-sighted comprehension of the issues of
this question. Cardinal Manning says, " The
Catholic Church is eitlur the masterpiece of Satan
or tlie kingdom of tlie Son of God^ Cardinal
Newman says, "-^ sacerdotal order is historically
the essence of the Church of Rome ; if not divinely

Interpretation of the Reformers. 259

appointed^ it is doctrinally the essence of antichrist!'
In both these statements the issue is clear, and it
IS the same. Rome herself admits, openly admits,
that if she is not t/ie very kingdom of Christy she
is that of antichrist. Rome declares she is one or
the ot/ier. She herself propounds and urges this
solemn alternative. You shrink from it, do you ?
/ accept it. Conscience constrains me. History
compels me. The past ^ the awful past rises before
me. I see the great apostasy, I see the deso-
lation of Christendom, I see the smoking ruins,
I see the reign of monsters ; I see those vice-
gods, that Gregory VII., that Innocent III., that
Boniface VIII., that Alexander VI., that Gregory
XIII., that Pius IX.; I see their long succession,
I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see their
abominable lives ; I see them worshipped by
blinded generations, bestowing hollow benedic-
tions, bartering lying indulgences, creating a
paganized Christianity ; I see their liveried slaves,
their shaven priests, their celibate confessors ; I
see the infamous confessional, the ruined women,
the murdered innocents ; I hear the lying absolu-
tions, the dying groans ; I hear the cries of the
victims ; I hear the anathemas, the curses, the
thunders of the interdicts ; I see the racks, the
dungeons, the stakes ; I s^e that inhuman Inquisi-

26o Romanism and the Reformation.

tion, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries
of St. Bartholomew, that Spanish armada, those
unspeakable dragonnades, that endless train of
wars, that dreadful multitude of massacres. / see
it al/y and in the name of the ruin it has wrought in
the Church and in t/ie worlds in the name of the
truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, the
God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed ;
in the name of the millions it has deluded, the
millions it has slaughtered, the millions it has
damned ; with holy confessors, with noble refor-
mers, with innumerable martyrs, with the saints
of ages, / detwunce it as the masterpiece of Satan,
as the body and soul and essence of antichrist.

LECTURE VII.

INTERPRETATION AND USE OF THESE PRO-
PHECIES IN POST-REFORMA TION TIMES.

THREE centuries have rolled by since the
accomplishment of the glorious Reformation.
These centuries have a double aspect — a Pro-
testant, and a Papal. On the one hand, they
present the spectacle of an era oi liberty and light ;
and, on the other hand, of reaction and revolution.

In the history of Protestantism these centuries
have been an era of liberty , civil and religious.
In A.D. 1500 there was not a free nation in
Europe ; all were subject to the tyrannical govern-
ment of Rome. Now half Europe and America
are free from that intolerable yoke. In the year
1 500 there was hardly a Protestant to be found in
the world ; Rome had exterminated them all by
prolonged and cruel persecution. At the present
day Protestants are 150,000,000 in number.

And the last three centuries have been an era of

light. At their commencement the human mind

961

262 Romanism and the Reformation.

experienced an emancipation, and was furnished
with new instruments. Learning was revived, and
the art of printing discovered. Since then the
word of God has been multiplied, translated, and
expounded as never before. And the understand-
ing of prophecy has shared the general advance.
During this time libraries have been written on
the prophetic Scriptures. Mighty interpreters have
been raised up, men such as Mede, Sir Isaac
Newton, Elliott, whose investigations have drawn
back the veil of long continued ignorance, and let
in new light upon some of the darkest obscurities
of the theme. Interpreters have risen in groups
like constellations of stars, and knowledge has
increased.

On the other hand, post- Reformation times have
been times of Papal reaction and revolution. In
the first place, the Protestant Reformation was
encountered by a tremendous Papal reaction, the
rising wave of life and liberty was met by a coun-
terwave of resistance. Hardly was the ship of a
Protestant Church set free and launched upon the
deep than there arose a mighty tempest The re-
surrection of the slain " witnesses " of Christ in the
person of the reformers was answered by a resur-
rection of all the powers of the pit. The awakening
of men's souls brought war^ ecclesiastical and civil,

PosUReformation Interpreters. 263

a war of anathemas and a war of extermination.
Swords flashed forth, flames were kindled ; Rome
rose in its anger and its might, and did wondrously.
She thundered excommunications, she slaughtered
millions ; not without an awful struggle would the
prince of darkness give up his kingdom. No !
Look to it, ye brave reformers ; ye will need the
armoury of heaven and its help, for the hosts of
hell are roused against you. Ye may conquer, but
it shall be through strife and anguish, and seas of
blood.

Draw up your confessions of faith, ye blessed
restorers of a pure gospel ; dare to give them to
the world if ye will, but ye shall be stoutly an-
swered. Against your Confession of Augsburg
Rome shall erect her Council of Trent : she shall
formulate her canons and decrees ; she shall im-
pose her Creed of Pius IV., and utter her chorus
of anathemas.

Rise up, O Lutlur ! cry out concerning "the
Babylonian captivity of the Church," burn the
Papal bull, rouse Germany ; but you shall have
your match. Satan shall bring forth his Loyola^
and Loyola his Jesuits — subtle, learned, saintly in
garb and name, protean in form, infinite in dis-
guises, innumerable, scholars, teachers, theologians,
confessors of princes, politicians, rhetoricians.

264 Romanism and the Reformation.

casuists ; instruments keen, unscrupulous, double-
edged ; men fitted to every sphere and every en-
terprise — they shall swarm against the Church of
the Reformation, each one wise in the wisdom and
strong in the strength which are not from above
but from beneath.

Rise up, Zwingle, thou lion of Zurich ! lead forth
thy brave Swiss against the enemies of liberty and
truth ! But ye must perish on the field of battle
ere your cause succeed.

Ride forth, fair flower oi France I strive, ye brave
Hnpienots^ for your country's freedom and the
faith of the gospel ! But Paris shall run with your
blood ; ye shall fall like leaves from a tree shaken
by tempest ; ye shall lie in heaps, like rubbish in
the streets ; your bodies shall choke the streams,
they shall rot in rivers, they shall hang in chains,
they shall be shovelled into cemeteries, or buried
in dung-heaps. Rome shall ring her joy-bells and
sing her Te Deians, and fill her cathedrals and
palaces with acclamations because the massacre of
St Bartholomew has overthrown, for a time, the
work of the Reformation in France.

Stand up, ye Hollanders ! stand up, William the
Silent ! stand up, ye men of Haarlem and Rot-
terdam, of Amsterdam and Leydcn, ye brave
burghers and earnest theologians. Ye dare to con-

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 265

tend for civil liberty and sacred truth : your land
shall groan beneath the tread of Alva's troops ;
your fortresses shall, fall, your citizens shall be
thrust through with Spanish swords, your posses-
sions shall be plundered, your wives and your
daughters shall be dishonoured and foully mur-
dered, your children trampled beneath horse-hoofs,
and trodden down like mire in the streets.

Break thy chains, O England ! Rome shall find
means to rivet them again ; thou shalt have thy
bloody Mary, and thy fires of Smithfield. Protes-
tant bishops shall burn for it ; against thy sea-girt
isle Spain shall send her proud armada ; a fleet
of one hundred and thirty great ships of war shall
come across the seas, twelve of them named after
the twelve apostles; they shall be laden with
seamen and troops, with swords and guns, with
priests and Jesuits ; the pope shall bless the ban-
ners. Woe to thee, O England, if Heaven help thee
not, if its winds forsake thy cause !

Combine yourselves together, ye Protestant
states of Germayty ; claim your rights of con-
science ; stand for the truth ; establish your Pro-
testant liberties : but you shall have your desolat-
ing war of thirty years ! From Bohemia to the
broad waters of the Scheldt, from the banks of the
Po to the' shores of the Baltic, whole countries

266 Romanism and the Reformation,

shall be devastated, harvests destroyed, cities and
villages reduced to ruins ; half Europe shall be
set on fire, and civilization shall be buried for a
season in bloodshed and barbarism.

The apostate Church commands the swords of
Latin Christendom — the harlot rides the beast, and
the beast has claws and great iron teeth, and
sharp, strong horns, and inhuman ferocity : she sits
proudly upon it, and it obeys her, grasping, rend-
ing, and crushing whom she will. But what if the
beast should grow weary of carrying her ? What
if the beast should take a dislike to her usurping
ways ? What if it should resist her^ and cast tier
off, and tnrn its power against her, and serve her
as she /lad sensed otliers ? Ah ! that would be a
different story, but not an experience unforetold.
John foresaw it would be thus eighteen centuries
ago, and history has fulfilled his predictions : for
Romish reaction was followed by democratic rti^o-
lution; I $72 was followed by 1793, the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew by the Reign of Terror. France
Papal crushed France Protestant, and was crushed
in its turn by France infidel. Have you not heard
of Voltaire, of Rousseau, of Robespierre, of Danton,
of the execution of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoi-
nette, of the massacres in Paris in 1793, of the
guillotine, of the noyades or wholesale drownings.

Post-Reformation Interpreters. 267

of how the river Loire was choked with corpses, of
the war in La Vendue, of the worship of the god-
dess of reason, of the turning cathedrals into
stables, of the forty thousand churches, chapels,
and oratories torn down by the revolutionists, of
the massacre and banishment of priests and Jesuits,
of the burning of palaces, the beggaring of princes,
the overthrow of monarchy and government and
aristocracy and corrupt religion, as by the heav-
ings of a social earthquake, or the outburstings
of an irresistible volcano ? Have you not heard
of how the infidel democracy rose in its might,
struck down the powers which had deceived and
oppressed it, confiscated all the vast revenues
of the Church, the domains of the Crown, the
estates of the nobles, "slaughtered one million
and twenty-two thousand persons, of all ranks
and ages, and both sexes, till the streets of Paris
ran with blood, and the guillotines could not over-
take their work"? And have you not heard how
a little later on the Papal States were conquered
by Napoleon, and ccmverted into a Roman re-
public ; how the Papacy was extinguished, the
Vatican plundered, ecclesiastical property confis-
cated, and the pope dragged from the altar, and
sent as a prisoner to die in exile ? Are not these
matters of history^ and of recent history f Here is

268 Romanism and the Reformation.

Thiers* " History of the French Revolution "; here
IS Alison's history of that revolution, in twelve
volumes ; and here is Carlyle's history of the same,
written as with a pen of fire. It is but a century
since these things were accomplished, and the
after-waves of that mighty revolution are rolling
still.

These two great movements which have followed
the Reformation, the Papal reaction of the i6th
and 17th centuries, and the Revolution of the i8th
century, have mightily helped to open men's eyes
to the true character of Romanism, and to the
fulfilment of the prophetic Scriptures. The last
three centuries have consequently witnessed a
great advance in the comprehension of prophecy,
and we are this evening to study the expositions
which have resulted.

First, note the fact that Rome's reply to the
Reformation in the i6th century ificluded an
answer to the proplietic teachings of t/ie Reformers.
Through the Jesuits Ribera and Bellarmim Rome
put forth her futurist interpretation of prophecy.
Ribera was a Jesuit priest of Salamanca. In 1585
he published a commentary on the Apocalypse,
denying the application of the prophecies con-
cerning antichrist to the existing Church of Rome.
He was followed by Cardinal BellarminCy a nephew

Post-Reformation Interpreters. 269

of Pope Marcellus II., who was bom in Tuscany
in 1542, and died in Rome in 162 1. Bellarmine
was not only a man of great learning, but "the
most powerful controversialist in defence of Popery
that the Roman Church ever produced." Clement
VIII. used these remarkable words on his nomi-
nation : " We choose him, because the Church of
God does not possess his equal in learning." Bel-
larmine, like Ribera, advocated the futurist inter-
pretation of prophecy. He taught that antichrist
would be one particular man, that he would be a
Jew, that he would be preceded by the reappear-
ance of the literal Enoch and Elias, that he would
rebuild the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, compel
circumcision, abolish the Christian sacraments,
abolish every other form of religion, would mani-
festly and avowedly deny Christ, would assume
to be Christ, and would be received by the Jews
as their Messiah, would pretend to be God, would
make a literal image speak, would feign himself
dead and rise again, and would conquer the whole
world — Christian, Mohammedan, and heathen ;
and all this in the space of three and a half years.
He insisted that the prophecies of Daniel, Paul,
and John, with reference to the antichrist, had
no application whatever to the Papal power.

The futurist writings of Ribera and Bellarmine

270 Romanism and the Reformation.

were ably answered by Brightman, of whose work
on the Apocalypse, published about the year 1600,
this IS a copy ; and they have been answered
since his time In a succession of learned works
which I cannot stop to enumerate : for I desire
to dwell upon another, and, as I regard it, a
more important phase of prophetic interpretation
marking the last three centuries, a phase not of a
negative but of a positive character. Protestant
interpreters have done more than answer the false
futurism of the Church of Rome. They have built
up the true historic ifiterpretation of proplucy ; they
have built up a solid and symmetrical system, a
system which has developed slowly, which has
progressed constantly, which has been born not of
diligent investigation only, but of profound ex-
perience ; a system whose truth has been sealed
and demonstrated by its ever-growing corre-
spondence with the actual course of events. True
theology, like true science, is slow in development.
The growth of astronomy, for example, has ex-
tended through six thousand years. The system
of Ptolemy was corrected by that of Copernicus ;
that of Copernicus was advanced by the laws of
Kepler and the wonderful discoveries of Newton ;
and then further perfected by the Herschels and
many others in recent times.

Post- Reformation Interpreters. 271

■ ■ I ^M - -" - ■

Keeping strictly to the prophecies relating to
Romanism and the Reformation, I will now
endeavour to show you some of the analogous
progress which has been made in their compre-
hension during the last 250 years. The following
names represent a complete pillar of prophetic
interpretation : Joseph Mede^ Sir Isaac Newton^
Jurieiif Vitrittga, Daubus^ Flemings De C/ieseaux,
Bishop Newton^ Faber^ Cunning/tame, Keith^ Bicker-
stetlt^ Wordsworth^ Elliott^ and Birks, Their prin-
cipal works are on this table, and I will now
briefly trace the progress they exhibit in prophetic
interpretation made in the last two and a half
centuries.

Joseph Mede was a fellow of Christ's College
in Cambridge, and lived in the first half of the
17th century, the century immediately succeeding
that of the Reformation. He was a man of great
learning and diligence, and deep insight into the
Divine word, and made prophecy his special
study. Dr. Twisse, who was prolocutor in the
Westminster Assembly of Divines, wrote a preface
to Mede*s work on the Apocalypse, in which he
says that " as it is written of the virtuous woman
in the Proverbs of Solomon, ' many daughters
have done virtuously, but thou surmountest them
all,* so it may be said of Mede's exposition of

2 72 Rotnanism and the Reformation.

Revelation : many interpreters have done excel-
lently, but he surmounteth them all." Mede's
key to the Apocalypse, written in Latin, was
translated into English by Richard More, one of
the burgesses in the English Parliament ; and the
House of Commons published that translation in
1 64 1, the year of the great massacre of Protestants
in Ireland. Here is a copy of that work pub-
lished by the House of Commons. The Puritan
Parliament set its seal thus upon the historical
antipapal interpretation of prophecy, and upon
this valuable work of Joseph Mede. Mede did
what no interpreter had previously done ; he laid
down the important principle, that, for the correct
understanding of the Apocalypse, it is necessary,
in the first place, to fix the order of its principal
visions apart altogether from the question of their
interpretation. Accordingly Mede sought to ex-
hibit the synchronism and the succession of these
visions, or the order of the prophecies contained
in the Apocalypse. Setting aside and ignoring
for the time all question of the meaning of these
prophecies, he endeavoured to demonstrate from
the visions themselves the position they occupy
with reference to one another. Their mutual rela-
tions once proved serve as a most valuable clue
to their significance. Mede prefaces his work with

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 273

the prayer: "Thou who slttest upon the throne,
and Thou, O Lamb, Root of David, who wast only
worthy to take and open this book, open the eyes
of Thy servant, and direct his hand and mind,
that in these Thy mysteries he may discern and
produce something which may tend to the glory
of Thy name and profit of the Church."

The first synchronism which Mede establishes
is that of what he calls a ^^ noble quaternion of
prophecies,'* remarkable by reason of the equality
of their times. First, of the woman remaining
in the wilderness for three and a half times, or
as it is declared in the prophecy, 1,260 days ;
second, of the beast whose deadly wound was
healed ruling forty-two months ; third, of the outer
court of the temple trodden under foot by the
Gentiles for the same number of months ; fourth,
of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth 1,260
days. Mede points out that not only are these
times equal, but they begin at the same period and
end together, and must t/ierefore synchronise through^
out their course The events of the last 250 years
have confirmed Mede's interpretation as to the
general synchronism of these times, but they have
also shown that these periods should be reckoned
from an era rather than from a point of time ; and
that they terminate in a corresponding era. The

T

274 Romanism and tJie Reformation.

three and a half times of prophecy date from the
era of the rise of the Papal and Mohammedan
powers, and extend to the era of the overthrow of
those powers ; in which era we are living at the
present day. Let me refer you to a work on this
subject which I published a year ago, entitled
" Light for the Last Days," tracing these prophetic
times, and the eras of their commencement and
close. Mede established several other synchron-
isms ; as, for example, one between the revived
Roman head of Revelation xiii., and the two-
horned, lamb-like beast, which John calls elsewhere
" the false prophet," which acts for the revived head.
He shows that the two are inseparable companions;
that they are together alike in their rising and in
their ruin, that the one exercises the power of the
other, and thus, whatever be their meaning, that
they are necessarily synchronous. He then traces
the position of the remaining visions of the Apo-
calypse as they stand related to these, showing
which precede these central visions, which synchro-
nise with them, and which succeed them ; thus
making out and establishing the connexion and
order of the entire series of visions ; and this, as
I have already stated, apart from all question of
interpretation. Having gone through the book of
Revelation thus, Mede next proceeds to expound

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 275

and demonstrate its fulfilment in the events of
history.

I have said that Mede*s work on Revelation
was approved and printed by the Puritan Parlia-
ment. Just at that time the Westmiiister Assembly
of Divines drew up its most valuable Confession of
Faith, a Confession subsequently accepted by the
national Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Here is
a copy containing a list of the hundred Puritan
divines who met in the Westminster Assembly,
headed by the name of Dr. William Twisse, the
prolocutor, who wrote the preface to Mede*s work
to which I have already referred. The West-
minster Confession of Faith endorsed the historical
interpretation of prophecy, and declared the Roman
pontiff to be the predicted " man of sin'' Weigh
well the following words of the Westminster
divines upon this subject, embodied in the 25th
chapter of their solemn declaration of the things
they held and taught on the authority of Scripture.
*' There is no other head of the Church but the Lord
fesus Christy nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense
be head thereof but is t/iat antichrist, that man of
sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in
the Church against Christ and all that is called God^
One of the divines who put his hand to this
statement was the famous Puritan writer. Dr.

276 Romanism and the Reformation.

Thomas Goodwin^ of London, and he has left us
an exposition of the book of Revelation of which
this is a copy. It belongs, I need hardly say, to
the historical school, and describes the Apocalypse
as " tlie story of Chris fs kingdom^

Sir Isaac Newton followed Mede and the Puritan
writers, and further advanced the comprehension
of prophecy. He was a Christian as well as a
philosopher, and took delight in studying and
comparing the works and word of God. The
vastness of his genius led him to the most extensive
views of things natural and Divine. He studied
nature as a whole, history as a whole, chronology
as a whole, and, in connexion with these, prophecy
as a whole. While Mede directed his attention
especially to the Apocalypse, Newton investigated
both it and the book of Daniel^ tracing out their
connexions with the course of history and chrono-
logy, utilizing in the latter his unrivalled astro-
nomical skill. Here is a copy of his " Observations
on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse
of John," printed in the year 1733, six years after
his death. In the first chapter Newton says:
" Among the old prophets Daniel is most distinct
in order of time, and easiest to be understood,
and therefore in those things which relate to the
last times he must be made the key to the rest."

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 277

In the third chapter he says : "The prophecies
of Daniel are all of them related to one another
as if they were but several parts of one general
prophecy given at several times. The first is
the easiest to be understood, and every following
prophecy adds something new to the former."
" In the vision of the image composed of four
metals the foundation of all Daniel's prophecies is
laid. It represents a body of four great nations
which should reign over the earth successively, viz.
the people of Babylonia, the Persians, the Greeks,
and Romans ; and by a stone cut out without
hands which fell upon the feet of the image and
break all the four metals to pieces, and became
a great mountain and filled the whole earth, it
further represents that a new kingdom should arise
after the four, and conquer all those nations, and
grow very great, and last till the end of all ages."
In chapter iv. he says : " In the next vision,
which is of the four beasts, the prophecy of the
four empires is repeated with several new addi-
tions, such as are the two wings of the lion, the
three ribs in the mouth of the bear, the four wings
and four heads of the leopard, the eleven horns
o** the fourth beast, and the Son of man coming
in the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days
silting in judgment"

278 Romanism and the Reformation.

In chapter vii. he expounds the *^ little /loni*'
of the fourth beast, with eyes as a seer and a
mouth speaking great things, and changing times
and laws ; and shows it to represent a power both
prophetic and kingly, and that such a seer, a
prophet, and a king is the Roman Papacy. He
traces its rise, and the cotemporaneous rise of the
ten horns at the fall of the western Roman
empire. He traces also its dominion, and antici-
pates its doom at the close of the foretold period.
He interprets the days of prophecy as years,
reckoning, to use his own words, a prophetic day
for a solar year. He shows the futurity in his
time, and proximity of the world-wide overthrow
of the Papal power. He says that the time had
not then come perfectly to understand these
mysterious prophecies, " because the main revolti-
tion predicted in them had not yet come to pass.
In the days of the voice of the seventh angel,
when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God
shall be finished, as He hath declared to His
servants the prophets ; and then the kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our
Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever."
Till then, he says, "we must content ourselves
with interpreting what Juxth been already fulfilled**
He adds : " Amongst the interpreters of the last

Post-Reformation Interpreters. 279

age there is scarce one of note who hath not made
some discovery worth knowing, and thence I seem
to gather that God is about opening these
mysteries."

He points out that an angel must fly through
the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel
to preach to all nations before Babylon falls and
the Son of man reaps His harvest, and says : " If
t/ie geiieral preaching of t/te gospel be approaching^
it is to us and our posterity that those words
mainly belong, ' In the time of the end the wise
shall understand, but none of the wicked shall
understand.' ' Blessed is he that readeth, and they
that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
those things which are written therein. ' '*

How marvellously has Sir Isaac Newton's anti-
cipation of a general preaching of the gospel been
accomplished in the glorious evangelization of the
world during the last century !

This judicious writer expressed it as his opinion
to Whiston, his learned successor, that the Church
of Rome was destined to be overthrown by a
tremendous infidel revolution ; in other words, that
superstition would be trodden down by infidelity.
Remembering that Sir Isaac Newton died half a
century before the French Revolution, this was
a very remarkable anticipation !

28o Rof nanism and the Reformatwn.

One of the most important features of Sir Isaac
Newton's work is its exposition of the use of
embolic language in prophecy. He lays it down
as a principle, that "for understanding the
prophecies we are in the first place to acquaint
ourselves with the figurative language of tlie
prop/tets. This language is taken from the analogy
between the world natural, and an empire or
kingdom considered as a world politic." The
prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse being
symbolic in their language are not to be interpreted
literally. In these books the sun, moon, stars,
earth, fire, meteors, winds, storms, lightning, hail,
rain, waters, sea, rivers, floods, dry land, overflowing
of waters, drying up of waters, fountains, islands,
trees, mountains, wilderness, beasts, as the lion,
bear, leopard, goat, with their horns, heads, feet,
wings, teeth, ttc, are all symbolic ; they are symbols
of things of a different nature, though things
analogous to these, or in some sense resembling
them. On this principle, for example, the two
witnesses of Revelation xi. are symbolic^ and do not
represent two actual men from whose mouth
literal fire proceeds, and who literally shut heaven,
and literally turn waters to blood, and smite the
earth with literal plagues, and who are slain and
lie dead for three and a half literal days, and then

Post 'Reformation Interpreters. 281

literally rise from the dead, and literally and
visibly ascend to heaven in a cloud ; nor is their
ascension followed by a literal earthquake, and a
literal fall of the tenth part of a literal city, and
by literal lightnings, voices, thunderings, and hail.
All these are symbols of other things, and their
literal interpretation is an absurdity. Futurists
utterly degrade these solemn and majestic pre-
dictions by their pernicious attempts to expound
them on the principle of a literal fulfilment. The
first step in the direction of the comprehension
of these prophecies is the consistent recognition of
their symbolic character. A sufficient number of
these symbols are divinely interpreted for us, to
serve as a clue to all the rest, as when a beast is
explained to represent a kingdom, and a candle-
stick a local Church. The second step to a com-
prehension of symbolic prophecy is the settlement
of the meaning of the various symbols which they
employ.

Contemporaneous with Sir Isaac Newton there
were several great Hugtienot expositors of prophecy.
Among these I may name Jtirieu and Daubnz.
Both these were exiled Huguenots, and belonged
to the five hundred thousand Protestants who were
compelled to leave France by the persecuting
action of Louis XIV. in revoking the Edict of

282 Rontanism and the Reformation.

Nantes. Their sufferings under the Papal power
turned their attention to the prophetic word, and
in it they found support and consolation. Jurieu,
for example, begins his prophetic work with the
sentence : " The afflicted Church seeks for con-
solation. Where can she find it but in the
promises of God ? " Here is a copy of this work
by Jurieu, published in 1687, entitled, " The Ac-
complishment of the Scripture Prophecies; or
The Approaching Deliverance of the Church,"
" proving that the Papacy is the antichristian
kingdom, and tliat tliat kingdom is not far from its
ruin; that the present persecution may end in
three years and a half, after which the destruction
of antichrist shall begin, which shall be finished
in the beginning of the next age, and then the
kingdom of Christ shall come upon earth."

Here is another work published at the same
period by one oft/ie exiled Huguenot ministers. Its
title runs thus : •' A Nezu System oftJie Apocalypse :
written by a French Minister in the year 1685, and
fnislied but two days before the dragoons plundered
him of all except this Treatise^ The author antici-
pated that the reformed religion overthrown by the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes would be again
re-established in three and a half years ; which it
was in the most remarkable manner, though not

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 283

just as he expected. The great English Revolu-
tion, which brought about the re-establishment of
Protestantism, followed three and a half years after
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and these
men lived to see it, and to rejoice in it The
author of this little work points out ^^ futurity at
that time of the vials on Papal Rome, in which
he was evidently correct. Here is another Hugue-
not work of t/te same period^ written by an exiled
minister, describing the way in which all Protes-
tants throughout France had been forbidden to
assemble for the worship of God under the severest
penalties ; and also forbidden to leave the country
under pain of the galleys, or even condemnation
to death. This work traces in a very remarkable
way the similarity of the experience of the re-
formed Church in this last great Papal persecution
to that of the Jews under Antiochus Epiphanes
in the time of the Maccabees. It contains in
an appendix the famous bull of Pope Clement XI.,
condemning a hundred Jansenist propositions as
"false, pernicious, injurious, outrageous, seditious,
impious, blasphemous," etc. The hundred pro-
positions taken from the works of the Jansenists
are given here, and they are all most excellent
and in perfect harmony with the teachings of
Scripture. Among them are the following :

284 Romanism and the Reformation.

" Proposition 79. It is useful and necessary at
all times, in all places, and for all sorts of persons,
to study tlie Scripture^ and to understand its spirit,
piety, and mysteries."

"Proposition 84. It is to close to Christian
people tJie mouth of Jesus Christ to take from their
hands the holy word of God, or to keep it shut in
taking from them the means of understanding it."
In other words, to take the Bible out of the hand
of Christian people, or to take away from them the
means of understanding the Scripture, is to shut
the mouth of Christ Himself as far as they are
concerned.

"Proposition 85. To forbid the reading of
Scripture, and particularly of the gospel, to Chris-
tians is to forbid t/te use of light to the children
of light!* Which proposition also the pope con-
demns as an insuperable and abominable doctrine,
and adds : " We forbid to all the faithful of both
sexes to think, teach, or speak on these proposi-
tions in any other way than as we lay down in
this constitution or bull ; and whoever shall teach,
understand, or expound these propositions, or any
of them, in public or private in any other way
than is laid down by the pope, subjects himself to
the severest censures and condemnations of the
Church, and incurs the indignation of Almighty

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 285

God, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul."
All the propositions cited by Clement XL in this
bull, and condemned by him as '' scandalous, im-
pious, blasphemous," are as scriptural as those we
have quoted.

I have mentioned Daubuz among these exiled
Huguenots. He was the author of a large and
learned commentary upon the Apocalypse of con-
siderable value, with which I must associate, as
belonging to the same period, the "Commentary
on Revelation" published by the learned Dutch
professor, Vitringa, Here are copies of these two
works. Vitringa's was published in 1695, and the
commentary by Daubuz in 1720. They both
belong to the historical school, and exhibit an
erudition of the widest range, both secular and
ecclesiastical, embracing Hebrew, Greek, and other
literature bearing on the interpretation of pro-
phecy.

The well-known prophetic student Robert Flem-
ing lived at the time of Vitringa and Daubuz.
He published, in the year 1701, a small but
remarkable work, of which this is a copy, entitled :
" The Rise and Fall of Rome Papal." Its theme
is the relation of Papal and prophetic chronology.
Fleming shows, as others had done for many cen-
turies, that the 1,260 days of prophecy represent

286 Romanism and the Reformation.

1,260 years, and advocates their interpretation
upon the intermediate or calendar scale, which
would shorten the whole period by eighteen years.
Reckoning from the most important dates in the
rise of the Papacy, and guided by the prophetic
times, Fleming indicated two years then future
which would be marked in all probability by
crises in the overthrow of the Papal power, the
years 1794 and 1848; he also mentions 1866.
Now it should be remembered that Fleming pub-
lished this work in 1701, and that the French
Revolution fell out at the first of the dates which
he indicated — the Reign of Terror took place, as
you will remember, in 1793 ; and that the year
1848 brought another tremendous crisis in Papal
history. The revolution that year broke out in
Paris on February 23rd, and before March sth
every country lying between the Atlantic and the
Vistula had in a greater or less degree been
revolutionised. On March 15th, a fortnight after
the fall of Louis Philippe, a constitution was pro-
claimed at Rome, and the pope fled to Gaeta,
and was subsequently formally deposed from his
temporal authority, and an Italian republic pro-
claimed. The year 1866 was equally or even
more important, as introducing the series of Papal
defeats which culminated four years later, in 1870,

.Jhi^Jh^. I«l|l ■>«!

Post' Reformation Interpreters. 2S7

in the overthrow of the Papal monarchy in France,
and the fall of the Papal temporal power in Italy.

" Is it not a proof that this historical expositor
Fleming was working on right lines, and had
seized the true clue, that he should have fixed,
nearly a century beforehand, on the close of the
eighteenth century as the commencement of the
era of Divine vengeance on the Papal power, and
have pointed out, within a single year, the very
central period of that signal judgment";^ and
that he should have similarly indicated the years
1848 and 1866 as years of Papal overthrow, say-
ing, with reference to the former, "We are not
to imagine that this vial will totally destroy the
Papacy, though it will exceedingly weaken it, for
we find it still in being and alive when the next
vial is poured out " ? The vial which succeeds he
interprets as the judgment on the Mohammedan
power, especially as existing in Turkey ; and by
the vial which follows that again, the seventh vial,
he understands the final destruction of Rome or
mystical Babylon. He says : " As Christ con-
cluded His sufferings on the cross with this voice,
* // is finisludl so the Church's sufferings are con-
cluded with a voice out of the temple of heaven,
and from the throne of God and Christ there,
* " Approaching End of the Age," p. 476.

288 Romanism and the Reformation.

saying, * // is done! And therefore with this doth
the blessed millennium of Christ's spiritual reign
on earth begin." ^

About fifty years later than the time of Fleming,
or in the middle of last century, was published a
work by a Swiss astronomer named De Clieseatix
entitled, "Historical, Chronological, and Astro-
nomical Remarks on Certain Parts of the Book of
Daniel." A copy of this book exists in the British
Museum. It demonstrates the astronomic char-
acter of the prophetic times. It proves, in the
clearest and most conclusive way, that the 1,260
years of prophecy, and the 2,300 years of prophecy,
and also the period of 1,040 years which is their
difference — are astronomic cycles of one and the
same character, luni-solar cycles^ or cycles har-
monizing the revolutions of sun and moon, and
affecting the order of time dealt with in the
calendar. These discoveries are of the deepest
interest. As M. de Cheseaux says : " For many
ages the book of Daniel, and especially these
passages of it, have been quoted and commented
on by numerous and varied authors, so that it is
impossible for a moment to call in question their
antiquity. Who can have taught their author
the marvellous relation of the periods he selected

> Fleming : " Decline and Fall of Rome Papal," p. 83.

Post- Reformation Interpreters. 289

with soli-lunar revolutions? Is it possible, con-
sidering all these points, to fail to recognise in
the author of the book of Daniel the Creator of
the heavens and of their hosts, of the earth and
the things that are therein ? "

I cannot enlarge at the present time on De
Chcseaux's discoveries. If you desire to know
more about them, you will find a chapter on the
subject in my work on the " Approaching End of
the Age."

I must notice one more writer of the last
century, the excellent Bishop Newton^ whose
deservedly popular work on prophecy has gone
through so many editions. Newton acted on
Lord Bacon's suggestion, expressed in his "Ad-
vancement of Learning," that a history of prophecy
was wanted, in which every prophecy of the
Scripture should be compared with the event
fulfilling it The twenty-sixth dissertation of
Newton's work recapitulates his exposition of the
prophecies relating to Romanism. In it he says :
" Tlu proplucies relating to Popery are t/ie greatest
and most essential, and t/ie most striking part of
the revelation. Whatever difficulty and perplexity
there may be in other passages, yet here the appli-
cation is obvious and easy. Popery being tfie great
corruption of Christianity, there are indeed more

U

"J" "^••' ''on,. a,„
•^*'-'' '" l.« day. a '

""'" '^nd, anrf

to the / '>•' tt^

Post-Reformation Interpreters. 291

Faber and Cunninghame wrote very fully. upon
this subject during the first twenty years of the
century, showing the true measure and position
of the "seven times" of prophecy, as extending
from the rise of the four monarchies to the fall of
the fourth, in the days in which we live ; and of
the three-and-a-half times as reaching from the
rise to the fall of the Papal power.

Among the most valuable expositors who have
succeeded these I may mention Keith, who deals
mainly with the evidential side of prophetic inter-
pretation. One of his most important works is
entitled, " History and Destiny of the World and
the Church according to Scripture ; or, The
Four Monarchies and the Papacy." He quotes
throughout, from first to last, tJu testimony of the
Romanists themselves^ in confirmation of his asser-*
tions. His work is an unanswerable argument for
the Protestant interpretation of prophecy.

The time would fail me to speak of the works
of the well-known Bickersteth, or to refer in detail
to the many able writers in England, Scotland,
Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and America,
who within the last fifty years have expounded
Scripture prophecy on the historic principle. I
can do no more than say a few sentences in
closing about three of the greatest of these writers,

292 Romanism and the Reformation.

Bishop Wordsworth^ Rev. E. B. Elliott^ and Pro^
fessor Birks^ of Cambridge.

The works of the late Bishop Wordsworth^ that
learned and eloquent commentator, demonstrate
with perfect conclusiveness that Rome Papal is the
Babylon of the Apocalypse. Wordsworth under-
stood the Church of Rome better than any com-
mentator, Elliott excepted, in recent times ; and
he was familiar also with the entire history and
literature of the Christian Church. His testimony
on the fulfilment of prophecy in Papal Rome is
such as to settle the question finally for all intelli-
gent and unbiassed minds.

The learned commentator. Dean A If or d^ who
was a semi- futurist, says : *^I do not hesitate . . .
to maintain that interpretation which regards Papal
and not pagan Rome as pointed out by the harlot
of this vision (Rev. xvii.). The subject has been
amply discussed by many expositors. I would
especially mention Vitringa and Dr. Wordsworth.'*

While quoting Dean Alford, I would warn you
against the snare into which many have fallen, of
trusting themselves implicitly to the guidance of
Greek scholars such as Alford, Tregelles, and Elli-
cott, in the study of prophecy. These students
of the letter of sacred writ have their place and
value, and should stand high in our estimation

Post'Reformation Interpreters. 293

but their special work did not qualify them for the
comprehension of the far-reaching system of pro-
phetic truth. Tlu instrument they employ in their
researcJus is the microscope^ not t/ie telescope. You
cannot scan the starry heavens, or the breadth of
the earth, with a microscope ; you need a tele-
scope for that. Greek scholars of such eminence
are naturally short-sighted. They pore over manu-
scripts, words, letters, points. They seldom grasp
the meaning of history or prophecy as a whole.
They generally neglect the philosophy of history,
and the light which astronomy has cast on the
chronology both of history and prophecy. Besides
this, they are too much influenced by traditional
testimony, by the views of antiquity. The notions
of the Fathers as to an individual, short-lived
antichrist, notions which grew up in the twilight
of early times, weigh more with them than the
teachings of ages of subsequent experience.
Wedded to the past, they are blind to the pro-
gressiveness of prophetic interpretation. They do
not grasp the simple principle that tlu true inter-
preter of prophecy is neither tradition nor specula-
tion, but ever-evolving history ; that prophecy
must be studied in the light of its fulfilment,
and the future in the light of the past Pro-
phecy is vast, mountainous, and far-reaching sight

294 Romanism and the Reformation.

is needed for its elucidation. A Christian philo-
sopher like Sir Isaac Newton, accustomed to the
study of the facts and laws of nature, and the
entire course of history and chronology, is a far
safer guide in this extensive subject than a Greek
scholar whose whole business is the study of words.
The man with the microscope sees small points
uncommonly well, but he fails to perceive great
general relations. As he does not steadily con-
template these relations, they produce no vivid
impression upon him, and he is often led to con-
clusions totally at variance with the whole course
of experience, and even with the teachings of
common sense.

Not that all scholars however are shortsighted.
Occasionally scholars are met with like Rev.
E. B, Elliott and Professor Birks, both fellows of
Trinity College, Cambridge, equally able to use
the microscope and the telescope. Unquestion-
ably the most learned and able work ever written
upon the book of Revelation is Mr. Ellioifs
** Horce ApocalYptic(BP The late Dr, Candlish^ of
Edinburgh, no mean judge, describes Elliott as
" among the most learned^ profound^ and able exposi-
tors any of the books of Scripture liave ever had'' ^

* Robert S. Candlish, D.D. : Lecture on "The Pope,
the Antichrist of Scripture."

Post-Reformation Interpreters. 295

Elliott's commentary on the Apocalypse is to
historic interpretation what Butler's "Analogy"
or Paley's famous work is to the evidence of Chris-
tianity — a solid foundation. It is learned, candid,
and conclusive. It assumes nothing without
ground. It deals with unquestionable facts, and
that too with great fulness. It compares history
with prophecy in a more elaborate way, at all
points, than any work which preceded it. In style
it is somewhat involved and overloaded, and its
ten thousand references repel the superficial reader ;
but it will remain a masterpiece of exposition
while the study of the sure word of prophecy
endures.

Professor Birks^ of Cambridge, while equal to
Elliott as a scholar, and nearly equal to him in
painstaking research, was his superior in philo-
sophic grasp and logical ability. He was a
comprehensive synthesist, a keen analyst, a con-
vincing reasoner, an eloquent writer. He was
accurate, clear-headed, patient in investigation,
fair in statement, ripe in judgment His works
are an intellectual feast, as well as full of spiritual
instruction. One of his books, that for example
on " The Earlier Visions of Daniel," is worth more
than all the futurists ever wrote on prophecy put
together. His work on the ^^ First Elements of

1.11IU, ij-.-,o, Jxir-ii, ana i
effort it -sliivci-s tlicni to f
tlicm to the winds. It is
has long been out of prin
left to flourish in certain qi
this able demonstration of i'
I shall ever esteem it a
have known Professor Bi
municatcd the earliest disc
astronomic nature of the
coveries afterwards embodi(
" The Approaching End of
tenth edition. Of my
tions in the same line I '
save that I have partially p
more fully to publish, the e-
of reveah-i chronology — Hist
p/utie~\s so related to nat

Post'Reforniation Interpreters. 297

ture are not the works of two minds, orof many,
but of one. They are two testaments, but one
book, and as such are the work of the same Divine
Author.

And now in coficlusion. We have traced in
these last three lectures the antiquity^ the practical
use^ and tlie systematic development of the historical
interpretation of prophecy — the interpretation
which regards Papal Rome as the Babylon of the
Apocalypse, and the Roman pontiff as " the man
of sin." We have shown that the historical inter-
pretation was the earliest adopted in the Christian
Church; that it developed with the course of
history ; that it sustained the Church through the
long central ages of apostasy ; that it gave birth
to the Reformation; that it has been since con-
firmed by the events of several centuries, and
elaborated and defended by an unbroken series
of learned and unanswerable works. In vain do
t/te waves of controversy rage against this stately
rock. It has stood for ages, and is destined to
remain till the light of eternity shall break upon
the scene. The historic interpretation is no dream
of ignorant enthusiasts. It is no speculation of
fanciful, ill-balanced minds. It has grown with
the growth of generations ; it has been built up by
the labours of men of many nations and ages. It

298 Rovtanism and the Reformation.

has been embodied in solemn confessions of the
Protestant Church. It forms a leading element in
the testimony of martyrs and reformers. Like the
prophets of old, these holy men bore a double
testimony --dL testimony for the truth of God, and
a testimony against the apostasy of His professing
people. The providential position which they
occupied, the work they accomplished, gave sin-
gular and special importance to their testimony ;
and this was their testimony^ and nothing less^ that
Papal Rome is the Babylon of prophecy, drunken
with the blood of saints and martyrs ; and that its
head, the Roman pontiff, is the predicted " man of
sin," or antichrist.

To reject this testimony of God*s providential
witnesses on a matter of such fundamental im-
port, and to prefer to it the counter-doctrine
advocated by the apostate, persecuting Church of
Rome, is the error and guilt of modern futurism.

And that futurism is self-condemned. Futurism
is literalism^ and literalism in the interpretation of
symbols is a denial of their symbolic character.
It is an abuse and degradation of the prophetic
word, and a destruction of its influence. It sub-
stitutes the imaginary for the real, the grotesque
and monstrous for. the sober and reasonable. It
quenches the precious light which has guided the

Post- Reformation Interpreters. 299

saints for ages, and kindles a wild, delusive marsh-
fire in its place. It obscures the wisdom of Divine
prophecy ; it denies the true character of the
days in which we live; and while it asserts the
nearness of the advent of Christ in the power and
glory of His kingdom, it at the same time destroys
the only substantial foundation for the assertion,
which is prophetic chronology, and the stage now
reached in the fulfilment of the predictions of the
apostasy.

But in spite of the injurious effects of these
false interpretations, "the foundation of God
standeth sure"; none can cancel the prophecies
which He has written in His holy word, and
none can deny or destroy the mighty and far-
reaching results which their trite interpretation has
already accomplished in the world. It has given us,
and this is its glory ^ it has given us tlie REFORMA-
TION. It has broken the iron chains of supersti-
tion and despotism, and lifted nations from the
depths of their abasement. It has reared a temple
whose walls no enemy can ruin. It has reopened,
it has given back to the world, tfiat book whose
teachings have led millions into the way of life and
peace.

And the sacred light of these prophecies is
still guiding the Church of God across the wide

300 Romanism and the Reformation.

ocean of her dangerous way. T/iose steadfast stars
of prophecy which h'ghted of old the persecuted
Waldenses through the darkness of the middle
ages, which lighted the progress of the I^llards
and the Bohemians before the Reformation, which
lighted the noble reformers through gloom and
tempest three hundred years ago, and which have
since lighted watchful saints through troubled
centuries, are shining still in that high and holy
firmament, whence no mortal hand can pluck
them down; and they sliall shine on^ those t/iou-
sand glittering stars of prophecy — //// t/iey have
fulfilled tlieir glorious mission^ till they have guided
the Church in safety to her celestial haven, and
their long-enduring radiance melts at last in the
rising splendours of eternal day.

LECTURE VIII.

DOUBLE FO REVIEW OF THE REFORMATION.

T N our previous lectures we have considered from
^ the standpoint of prophecy the great Papal
system of Latin Christianity, and it now remains
for us to show you, in this closing one, that the
same mirror of the future which so fully reflected
the coming Roman apostasy reflects as clearly that
Reformation movement of the sixteenth century
which emancipated from it myriads of mankind.

This could hardly be otherwise. As prophecy
traces the entire story of Roman rule, in both its
pagan and Papal forms, and carries it on to a point
even now future, it would not, of course, pass by
unnoticed the most remarkable and noteworthy
incident in the later section of its history. It
could not omit from its anticipative record an
episode so distinctly providential as that pro-
testant exodus, which split western Christendom
into two halves, and severed from the communion
of Rome Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,

Holland, and Great Britain.

30X

302 Foreview of the Reformation.

It might well be omitted from Daniel's very
distant foreview, but scarcely from the latter pro-
phecy of John, when the incipient workings of the
apostasy had already commenced. Neither the
story of the apostate Church nor that of the true
would be complete without it ; for it was an epi-
sode of stupendous importance to the welfare of
hundreds of millions of mankind through nine or
ten generations, both to those whom it liberated
from the superstitions and tyrannies of Rome, and
to those on whom — by a counter movement — it
rivetted her fetters more strongly than ever.

What ! should the ruin wrought by Romanism
be plainly portrayed in advance on the prophetic
page, and the revival produced by the Spirit of
God and the word of His mouth be left altogether
out of view ? Should the work of Satan, his cor-
ruption and defilement of the professing Church,
be reflected in the Divine mirror, and not the work
of the glorious Head of the true Church through
His faithful witnesses in the restoration to the
world of the primitive Christianity it had lost?
Never ! A true mirror reflects everything alike,
and Scripture prophecy anticipates the entire out-
line of Church history. Just as there were no
events in the history of Israel which were not fore-
told before they came to pass, so in the history of

Old Testament Analogies. 303

the Church. The Reformation of the sixteenth
century, and its glad and glorious results, are as
clearly foreshadowed and foretold as the Roman-
ism of the dark ages.

You will naturally inquire, Where and how?
Before replying, let me remind you that there are
two kinds of proplucy in Scripture — the acted^ and
the spoken or written ; the type and the prediction.
In the Levitical sacrifices, for instance, we have
acted prophecies of the atonement ; in Isaiah liii.
we have verbal predictions of it. The whole
history of the natural Israel is typical of that of
the spiritual Israel, or Christian Church. Both
are delivered from Egypt, both are redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb, both arc led through a
desert, both are sustained by bread from heaven,
both journey towards a rest that remains for the
people of God. This broad analogy descends in a
wonderful way to details. The Apostle Paul in
I Cor. X. shows this, and states that, not only was
Israel's history typical, but that // ivas divinely
ordered tltat it might be so ; in other words, it was
intentionally proplietic. "These things," he says,
"happened unto them for ensamples (or types,
Twot), and are written for our instruction." Not
only are they recorded for our warning, but they
occurred in the providence of God in order that

304 Foreview of the Reformation.

they might foreshadow the experiences of the
Christian Church, and that she might learn from
them solemn and needed lessons.

The incidents of Jewish history actually hap-
pened, that they might be types of Christian
history; and Divine foreknowledge is as much
exemplified in this correspondence between type
and antitype as in that between prediction and
fulfilment.

I am to show you this evening then two sets of
predictions of the Reformation, one acted in Jewish
history^ the other symbolised in apocalyptic pro^
phecy ; the one embodied in the story of the Old
Testament, the other in the symbolic predictions
of the New.

Before I can do this you must allow me to
remind you with some degree of accuracy what
the Reformation was, as to its broad historical
characteristics.

It was not ^^ formation of the Church, but its
reformation after its ruin by Romanism. It was
not a first beginning, but a second. Pentecost
formed the Church ; Popery deformed it ; Protes-
tantism reformed it Pentecost occurred in the
first century, and is associated with the work of the
apostles themselves. The Reformation did not
occur till the sixteenth century, and was not com-

Old Testament Analogies. 305

pleted till the seventeenth, and is associated with
such names as Luther and Calvin, Zwingle and
Knox, Cranmer and Latimer. The first belongs
to ancient history, the last to modern times. A
great chronological gap of nearly fifteen hundred
years lies between the two. There were the early
ages of first love, apostolic zeal, rapid extension,
martyr suffering, noble confessions and apologies ;
followed by other centuries of imperial Christianity,
growing corruption, of bitter strife and ambitious
rivalries ; and these again by a thousand years of
Papal domination and ever-deepening moral dark-
ness, — before the glad light of the Reformation
broke over the earth. It is a late episode of
Church history, not an early one.

And further. When it did take place, its results
were very partial. It has affected but a portion of
apostate Christendom. It has not brought back
to the faith of Christ Austria, Italy, Spain, Por-
tugal, France, or Belgium. The reformed nations
may be the mightiest, the wealthiest, and the most
progressive; but they constitute only a fraction
of Roman Christendom. The greater part of it
remains involved still in the Papal apostasy.

Moreover Protestantism — priceless as have been
the benefits it has conferred on those who have
joined its ranks — is yet very far from being a

X

3o6 Foreview of the Reformation.

perfect recovery of primitive Christianity. It has
risen out of the gross ignorance and superstition of
mediaeval Romanism ; it has altogether abandoned
the idolatry of image worship, virgin worship,
saint worship, and the adoration of the priest-made
wafer deity of the Latin mass ; it has recovered a
purer faith and a simpler ritual, and secured for
the Church a measure of liberty and independence ;
above all, it has circulated the Scriptures in the
vulgar tongues of the nations of Christendom, and
has adopted as its motto, " The Bible, the whole
Bible, and nothing but the Bible " : but it has
never completely purified itself from Romish doc-
trine and practice, it has never regained complete
independence of secular domination, it has never
got clear of union with the world. It has rejected
the claim of the Church to rule the State, it has
not as clearly refused the pretension of the State
to rule the Church ; it has suffered worldly am-
bition, priestcraft, simony, and abuses of many
kinds ; and it has developed two strong tenden-
cies, one to a return to the Romish apostasy, and
the other to rationalism and infidelity. The true
spiritual Church of Christ is still, even in Pro-
testant landS) but a small part of the professing
Church.
I want you clearly to bear in mind from the

Old Testament Analogies. 307

outset then, first, that, in point of time. Protes-
tantism is a late or modern movement ; secondly,
that it is, in point of sphere, a limited one ; and
thirdly, that it is, in point of character, a very
imperfect return to primitive Christianity.

One more introductory remark before I pass on.
May we not safely conclude that Protestantism
will last till the end of the age and the second
advent of Christ? The reformed Churches will
never be darkened by a universal apostasy, as was
the early Church. The innumerable millions of
Bibles read and studied all over the world, the
countless human minds enlightened by their con-
tents, and human hearts regenerated by their reve-
lation of God in Christ, and linked by faith and
love and eternal life to the Saviour, forbid the
fear that the recovered gospel will ever again be
lost to the world. The chronology of the Papacy
shows us that the coming of the Lord is at hand ;
and hence we may rest assured that the Reforma-
tion is, not only a late incident in Church history,
but that it is tlie last great movement. The next
will be the final change from the militant to the
triumphant condition of the Church, when the
fourth empire shall pass away, and be succeeded
by the kingdom of the Son of man and of the
saints. We have entered on that phase of Church

3o8 Foreview of the Refor^nation.

history which will exist at the second advent;
nothing remains unfulfilled of the predictions con-
cerning Romanism, except her sudden destruction
at the end of this age.

As regards the history of the Reformation, I
want you to remember that it took place in stages
during a period extending over about half a cen-
tury. Its commencement is reckoned from the
year when Luther published his theses against in-
dulgences, A.D. 1517 ; and its close, in Germany at
least, may be placed in a.d. 1555, when the cele-
brated Peace of Augsburg confirmed the Protes-
tants of Germany in all their rights and possessions,
and recognised their complete national and eccle-
siastical independence of the popes. The close of
the anti-Reformation Council of Trent and the full
establishment of the Protestant Church of Eng-
land were in A.D. 1563, forty-six years from the
initial date of the Reformation. The struggle to
maintain the position gained, in face of the mur-
derous Papal reaction, which dates from the
Council of Trent, occupied a much longer period,
and was not over even at the Peace of Westphalia,
at the end of the thirty years' religious war, in A.D.
1648, when a basis was laid for the settlement of
the long struggle in Central Europe.

It extended however in France and England

Old Testament Analogies. 309

still further, nearly up to the close of the seven-
teenth century, when it was finally settled in
favour of Popery in France by the revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, and in favour of Protestantism
in England by the glorious Revolution, which
placed William of Orange on the throne, and
passed the act of succession excluding Popish
monarchs for the future. Not without so severe
and long-continued a struggle did the reformed
religion establish itself, even in the countries
where it did take root, or Protestantism cease to
resist, even in the countries where it was ultimately
crushed.

As to the various aspects of this great Reforma-
tion movement, you must distinguish especially
between three.

I. It was first and mainly, as we have said, a
return from gross and long-continued apostasy to
primitive Christianity ; it was a revival of spiritual
religion in the hearts of men. As at the first
promulgation of the gospel in Europe the pagan
people " turned from idols to serve the living and
true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven,"
so in the sixteenth century. Men turned once
more from the idols of Papal instead of pagan
Rome which they had been worshipping, and they
turned to GOD. They turned from the doctrines

3 1 o Foreview of the Reformation.

of demons to the gospel of Christ ; they began
once more to rejoice in the belief that Jesus had
delivered them from the wrath to come; they
received the doctrines proclaimed by the reformers
not as the word of men, but as it was in truth, the
word of God. It worked in them effectually, so
that they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods,
and all the other sufferings which came upon them
from their enemies, and from them sounded out
everywhere the word of the Lord. They received
the word in much affliction, but in joy of the Holy
Ghost, and in power and assurance. The re-
formers were like the apostles, holy, self-denying,
Bible-loving, hard-working preachers of the gospel.
In its first and primary aspect the Reformation
was a spiritual work. Its germ was tlie work of
the Holy Ghost in the soul of Luther, convincing
him of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,
leading him to repentance and to belief of the
gospel of God's grace, and convincing him that
salvation was "not of works." It was what we
should in these days call a spiritual revival, trace-
able to the sovereign grace of God in the first
place, and to the republication of His word in the
second.

2. But the Reformation did more than produce
a spiritual revival. As a matter of history, it gave

Old Testament Analogies. 311

•

also to the world a neiv ecclesiastical system. It
established reformed Churches in separation from
the Church of Rome, national Churches, with
secular monarchs in some cases at their head.
This was the case in England, where Henry VIII.
made himself head of the Church in these lands.
Whether this was for evil or for good we must not
here consider, but simply note the fact that the
Reformation movement built up a new outward
organization of an ecclesiastical character, with
new articles and rubrics, new ceremonies and
practices, and a new fountain head of authority.
This new organization was not only distinct from,
but antagonistic to Romanism, aAd because of its
being so was called Protestant. It has grown
with enormous rapidity during the last three cen-
turies, and has already attained proportions not
far short of those of the ancient and apostate
Church against which it protests. It is charac-
terized by the circulation of the Bible, and the
reference to // as to a standard of all contro-
versies ; by the recognition that ministers of Christ
should not be "sacrificing priests" but gospel
preachers, preachers of the word, heralds of the
great salvation ; and by an acknowledgment of
the right of private judgment in the interpretation
of Scripture.

3 1 2 Foreview of t/ie Reformation.

3. And, lastly, the Reformation produced Pro-
testant kingdoms — nations which severed all the
links that bound them to Rome, and asserted their
own absolute independence of the popes.

In a word, the movement was one of renovation
and liberation, which spread in successive and
ever-widening circles, from the individual to the
Church, and from the Church to the nation. It
was one founded on a recovered Bible, extended
by a renewal of the long-disused practice of
preaching, and issuing in the largely improved but
still imperfect state of things which we see around
us this day. It emancipated the minds of men
from long and bitter bondage ; it gave an impetus
to arts and sciences, to enterprise and culture, to
freedom and liberty. It was naturally hailed as
a glad deliverance by all who came under its in-
fluence ; but it brought upon them long struggles
and cruel sufferings under the terrible and mighty
Roman wild beast. The world reeled under the
fierceness of his wrath on the escape of so many
of his victims, his thunderous roar rent the air,
his mad passion caused the blood of saints to flow
in torrents, his cruel claws dragged thousands into
his dens of torture in dark Inquisition dungeons;
and so horrible was the sacrifice of human life
resulting from his rage, that the world turned on

Old Testament Analogies. 313

him at last and bade him be still, bound, and beat
him into silence, drew his claws and his teeth,
deprived him of dominion and the power to do
further damage, and left him feeble and defence-
less, albeit as fierce as ever.

We stated just now that this great Reformation
movement was doubly foretold in the Bible. It is
foreshadowed in the typical history of Israel in the
Old Testament, and its story forms one act of the
prophetie drama of the Apocalypse in the New.

I. It was foreshadowed in the history of
Israel. Just as the exodus of Israel from Egypt
after the passover and their crossing of the Red Sea
foreshadowed the redemption of the Church by the
death and resurrection of " Christ our passover,"
just as the murmurings and rebellions of Israel in
the wilderness prefigured the similar incidents in
Church history — so the idolatries of Israel fore-
shadowed the idolatry which early crept into the
Church, and which soon corrupted it altogether.
Even in the desert Israel fell into idolatry, and
worshipped the golden calf; and perhaps the
most salient feature of their history is the con-
stant tendency to relapse into this degrading
iniquity. No sooner were Moses and Joshua and
their cotemporaries dead and gone than declen-

3^4 Foreview of the Reformation.

sions into idolatry became frequent Various
tyrants were allowed to conquer and oppress tlie
people as a chastisement for this sin ; and when
they cried to God in their trouble, and He sent
judges and deliverers, they perhaps served Jehovah
as long as the judge lived, but quickly afterwards
relapsed again. Six times over they were given
up to their enemies, and the united servitudes they
endured extended to a hundred and eleven years.
Still they did evil "in the sight of the Lord, and
served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of
Syria and Zidon, the gods of Moab and Ammon,
and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the
Lord, and served not Him " (Jud. x. 6).

Hardly had the Jews reached the zenith of their
national prosperity under David and Solomon
than again there set in a process of declension.
Solomon himself built idol temples for his heathen
wives, and after the schism between Israel and
Judah idolatry became the State religion among
the ten tribes, who worshipped the golden calves
set up by Jeroboam the son of Ncbat at Dan and
at Bethel, and adopted besides all the idolatries of
the heathen around them.

Israel built, as we read in Kings, " high places
in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen
to the fenced city. And they set them up images

Old Testament Analogies. 315

and groves in every high hill, and under every
green tree : and there they burnt incense in all the
high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord
carried away before them ; and wrought wicked
things to provoke the Lord to anger : for they
served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them,
Ye shall not do this thing. . . • And they left
all the commandments of the Lord their God,
and made them molten images, even two calves,
and made a grove, and worshipped all the host
of heaven, and served Baal" (2 Kings xvii. 9-16).
So general did this worship of Baal become in
Israel, that in the days of Elijah it was all but
universal, and there were but seven thousand left
who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

Jeremiah exclaims in the Lord's name, " Hath
a nation changed their gods, which arc yet no
gods ? but My people have changed their glory for
that which doth not profit Be astonished, O ye
heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very
desolate, saith the Lord. For My people have
committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the
fountain of living waters, and hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water "
(Jer. ii. 11-13).

Isaiah cries, " How is the faithful city become
a harlot ! " " They have forsaken the Lord, they

3 1 6 Foreview of the Reformation.

have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger,
they are gone away backward."

Ezekiel describes the idolatry of Jerusalem and
Samaria under the figure of the grossest and most
abominable harlotry.

Hosea said, "Israel hath forgotten his Maker,
and buildeth temples " (Hos. viii. 14). "Ephraim
is joined to idols : let him alone " (Hos. iv. 17).

Amos accused Israel, saying, "Ye have borne
the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your
images, the star of your god, which ye made to
yourselves" (Amos v. 26).

Speaking by the mouth oi Jeremiah, the Lord
exhorts His people : " Trust ye not in lying words,
saying. The temple of the Lord, The temple of the
Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. . . .
Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and
swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and
walk after other gods whom ye know not ; and
come and stand before Me in this house, which is
called by My name, and say. We are delivered to
do all these abominations } Is this house, which is
called by My name, become a den of robbers in
your eyes ? " (Jcr. vii. 4-1 1.)

The ancient prophets arc full of this subject,
as you will remember; expostulations, appeals,
threats, irony, indignant remonstrance are all cm-

Old Testament Analogies. 317

ployed in turn ; but the people were obdurate.
"We will not hearken unto thee," said they to
Jeremiah; "we will certainly . . . burn in-
cense unto the queen of heaven, and pour out
drink offerings unto her" (Jer. xliv. 16, 17).

The enormity of this sin was enhanced by the
fact that the very object of Israel's existence as
a nation was that they might be a holy nation, a
peculiar people to Jehovah. They were the sole
witnesses to the true God in the world, and yet
they seemed obstinately resolved to sink back to
the level of their heathen neighbours.

The relapse of Israel and Judah into heathen
idol worship was punished in the providence of
God by their captivity in the lands of the heathen :
Israel was carried captive into Assyria, and Judah
into Babylon. The heathenism of Jerusalem and
of Babylon were substantially the same ; each was
marked by gross idolatry, and accompanied by the
cruel persecution of all who resisted it. Manasseh
filled Jerusalem with the blood of the faithful
whom he slew. In Babylon however both idola-
try and persecution found their most complete
development. Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden
image, issued his persecuting edict, and kindled
his fiery furnace ; and Belshazzar made his impious
feast, and brought the vessels of God's house to

3 1 8 Forcview of the Reformation,

his table, that he and his lords, his wives and his
concubines, might drink wine in them ; and praise
" the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood,
and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know";
and Daniel said, addressing the doomed man,
"The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose
are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified " (Dan.
V. 23).

Jeremiah cries concerning Babylon : " Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will do
judgment upon her graven images" (Jer. li. 52).
•*A drought is upon her waters; and they shall
be dried up : for it is the land of graven images,
and they are mad upon their idols ^^ (Jer. 1. 38).

The climax of apostasy and rebellion was
reached at last ; and when Judah had practically
sunk to the level of idolatrous Babylon, God
suffered her to be conquered and carried captive
by one Babylonian tyrant after another, and His
own temple at Jerusalem, which had been so dese-
crated and profaned. He permitted to be captured
and burned. The visible existence of the Jewish
nation ceased for a time. The daughters of
Jerusalem hung their harps upon the willows by
the rivers of Babylon, and Judaea lay desolate.

Then, about five hundred years before the first
advent of Christ, there came suddenly and un-

Old Testament Analogies. 319

expectedly deliverance and restoration. Ezra and
Nehemiah were raised up to lead back and re-
organize in the land a remnant of the people.
The temple of God rose from its ashes once more
on Mount Moriah. Jerusalem was rebuilt, and
its civil and religious polity restored ; it was sur-
rounded with walls and towers ; the long forgotten
word of God was recovered, and read in the audi-
ence of the people ; and as the language had
become somewhat obsolete during the seventy
years of the Babylonish captivity, the Jewish
reformers, we are told, not only "read in the
book in the law of God distinctly," but they also
" gave the sense, and caused them to understand
the reading " (Neh. viii. 8).

The restoration from Babylon inaugurated a
blessed era of civil and religious liberty. The
restored remnant were not without severe trials ;
it was by no means easy for them to accomplish
their task in face of the persistent and successful
opposition of Sanballat the Horonite and his
confederates and companions. Again and again
the work had to cease, and the people would
have given up in despair but for the encouraging
and stimulating words of Haggai, Zechariah, and
other prophets. The joint ministry of Ezra and
Nehemiah seems to have lasted about half a cen-

320 Forevieio of tlu Reformaiion.

tury, and they were permitted to see the work
accomplished, the Jewish people liberated from
their long exile, and, better still, from all tendency
to heathenism and idolatry. They never fell back
into tliat sin after the return from Babylon. The
long suspended worship of God was restored ;
magistrates, judges, and teachers of the law were
appointed over the land. The people entered
into a solemn covenant to separate themselves
from all idolaters, and even, painful as it was, from
the heathen wives some of them had taken ; and
before Ezra and Nehemiah passed to their rest
the people, the worship, the temple, and the city
were all restored, and the canon of Old Testa-
ment Scripture was arranged and closed.

Many political and military troubles arose after-
wards, but no such overthrow and restoration. //
loas to tliat second temple t/iat Christ came, thus
making the glory of the latter house greater than
that of the former.

Need I interpret all this true and yet typical
history ? Does it not apply itself to the later
antitypical history ? Halve you not seen the
Reformation of the sixteenth century as I have
described the return from Babylon ? Is not
Jerusalem the true Church, and Babylon the false ?
and is not Babylon, Rome ? Scripture distinctly

Old Testament Analogies. 321

states this. "The woman which thou sawest"
(whose brow was branded "Babylon'') "is that
great city which reigneth over the kings of the
earth." The angel said this to John. In John's
days no other great city than Rome ruled over the
kings of the earth. Babylon represents Rome.
The captive Jews represent God's people oppressed
in and by Rome. Their deliverance and restora-
tion, under Ezra and Nehemiah, represent the
Reformation under Luther and Calvin and other
reformers. Their repentance and abandonment of
idolatry, their reading of the word of God and
re-establishment of the worship of God, all this had
its parallel in the movement we have described.
Their rebuilding of Jerusalem and reorganization
of Jewish polity and national life foreshadowed
the constitution of reformed Protestant communi-
ties and nations; the duration of the two move-
ments was the same, about half a century ; the
results of the two movements were similar, in spite
of much bitter but futile opposition ; the pro-
portion of the restored remnant was the same,
representatives of only two tribes out of the twelve
returned to Jerusalem. Protestantism is growing
now with amazing rapidity ; but at the end of the
sixteenth century it was small, compared with the
hosts of Romanism. Both movements consisted

Y

322 Foreview of the Reformation.

of a spiritual work, an ecclesiastical work, and a
political work. Both are connected with a re-
covered Bible, and both "gave the sense" of the
original documents to the common people, or
made them understand the word of God. Luther,
Tyndale, and others translated the Bible into the
vulgar tongues of Europe. The close and wonder-
ful parallel extends to many particulars, which I
have no time to indicate. Both movements occur
late in the stories to which they respectively
belong ; and if the first advent belongs to t/u days of
the restored temple^ we liave every reason to beliei^e
that tJie second will take place in this Protestant
era, for, as I will show you presently, a chrono-
logical prediction occurs in the prophecy of it in
Revelation.

But I must revert to the point of Israel's idola-
try for a moment, and ask you to glance at the
remarkable development of this same sin in the
apostasy in the Romish Church.

All through its history idolatry has been the
most marked characteristic of the Papal system.
Romanism is simply the old Roman paganism
revived under Christian names. Romanism and
paganism bear to each other the most exact and
extraordinary resemblance.

Had paganism its temples and altars, its pictures

Old Testament Analogies. 323

and images ? So has Popery. Had paganism its
use of holy water and its burning of incense ? So
has Popery. Had paganism its tonsured priests,
presided over by a pontifex maximus^ or sovereign
pontiff? So has Popery; and it stamps this very
name, which is purely heathen in origin, upon the
coins, medals, and documents of the arrogant
priest by whom it is governed. Had paganism its
claim of sacerdotal infallibility ? So has Popery.
Had paganism its adoration of a visible repre-
sentative of Deity carried in state on men's
shoulders? So has Popery. Had paganism its
ceremony of kissing the feet of the sovereign
pontiff? So has Popery. Had paganism its
college of pontiffs 1 So has Popery, in the college
of cardinals. Had paganism its religious orders }
So has Popery. Had paganism its stately robes,
its crowns, and crosiers of office ? So has Popery.
Had paganism its adoration of idols, its worship
of the queen of heaven, its votive offerings ? So
has Popery. Had paganism its rural shrines and
processions ? So has Popery. Had paganism
its pretended miracles, its speaking images, and
weeping images, and bleeding images ? So ^ has
Popery. Had paganism its begging orders and
fictitious saints ? So has Popery. Had paganism
its canonization of saints, as in the deification of

324 Foreview of the Reformation.

the dead Caesars ? So has Popery. Had paganism
its idolatrous calendar and numerous festivals?
So has Popery. Had paganism its enforced celi-
bacy, its mystic signs, its worship of relics ? So
has Popery. Had paganism its cruel persecution
of those who opposed idolatry } So has Popery.
Was paganism satanically inspired } So is Popery.
God overthrew paganism ; Satan revived it under
Christian names : but God shall yet destroy it,
and sweep its hateful presence from the earth.
And further, j ust as there never failed in Israel

A LINE OF FAITHFUL WITNESSES

to testify against the idolatry of the people of
God, so also in the case of Romanism. All the
prophets testified against Jewish idolatry. Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Hosea and Amos were
burning witnesses against it ; but perhaps the most
typical witness of all was Elijah the Tisltbite,
This holy and earnest man was one who feared
God, and consequently feared not the face of his
fellow man. Though Jezebel had slain the pro-
phets of the Lord, he hesitates not to startle Ahab
with the bold accusation that his idolatries were
the cause of the famine that was desolating the
land. " I have not troubled Israel ; but thou, and
thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken th^

Old Testament Analogies. 325

commandments of the Lord, and thou hast fol-
lowed Baalim."

Forced to flee to the wilderness when Jezebel
seeks his life, hear him plead with God that he
had been jealous for His name, "because the
children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant,
thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets
with the sword ; and I, even I only, am left ; and
they seek my life, to take it away."

Like these Jewish witnesses^ the Christian wit-
nesses of later days were very jealous for the Lord,
grieved and indignant at the desecration of His
name and cause. Like the prophets they were
opposed, despised, denounced, persecuted, exiled,
and slain. Who were these Christian witnesses.^
They were, to use the words of one of them, an
exiled Huguenot, ** tJiosew/io since the birth of anti-
Christianity luxve cried against its errors and idola-
tries'^ If you wish to know their names this
Huguenot will tell you. He says in his " Com-
mentary on the Apocalypse," "they were called
Berengarians, Stercorists, Waldenses, Albigenses
Leonists, Petrobmsians, HenricianSy Wicliffites^
Lollards, etc. ; as they are now styled Lutherans^
ZwinglianSy Calvinists, Sacramentarians, Huguenots^
luretics, schismatics, etc ; and to these reproachful
names their enemies added fines, confiscations.

1

326 Forevieiu of the Refof^uUion.

imprisonments, banishments, and condemnations
to death." ^

Read Fox's "Acts and Monuments of the
Martyrs " if you desire a fuller account of the
lives and testimony of these faithful witnesses
against antichrist and his abominable idolatries,
and of the sufferings they endured in the cause
of truth through weary centuries. God never left
Himself without a witness. All through the dark
ages there were bold and holy men who stood
aloof from Rome's corruptions, as we have seen,
who denounced her idolatries, who endured her
malice, who dared the fury of the wild beast, who
resisted unto blood striving against sin. We shall
have to speak again of these witnesses in con-
nexion with the New Testament prophecy of the
Reformation.

Meantime let me remind you that from the
existence of this analogy it follows that the moral
judgments which are applicable to the Jewish
apostasy and reformation are equally so to the
Christian. To justify the Christian apostasy is in
principle to justify that Jewish apostasy so signally
condemned in the ivord of God ; and to condempt
t/te Christian reformation is in principle to con^
demn that feivish reformation so evidently sealed
* " A New System of the Apocalypse," p. 214.

Old Testament Analogies. 327

with Divine approval To approve the apostasy,
whether Jewish or Christian, is to approve the
work of sin and Satan ; and to condemn the
Reformation, whether Jewish or Christian, is to
condemn the work of Divine providence and grace.
The enemies of the Reformation are the enemies of
God. Those who would pull down the sanctuary
which the Reformation reared would have pulled
down the second temple built by the exiles re-
stored from Babylonish bondage. But what said
the promise of God as to that second temple?
" Be strong, saith the Lord, and work : for I am
with you. ... I will shake all nations, and
the desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill
this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.
. . . The glory of this latter house shall be
greater than of the former, saith the Lord of
hosts : and in this place will I give peace.'' ^ And
again, " The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come to His temple." -

* Hag. ii. 4-9. - Mai. iii. I.

■M»«

■— — — . ^t^

■».Ti a,"

52S

Foreview of lite Reformation.

\

\ \

New Testament Prophecy of the

Reformation.

We turn now, in the second place, to THE pro-
phecies OF THE Reformation in the last book
of the Bible. Here again the prediction is an
acted one ; but instead of being acted in real /its-
tory^ it is acted as on a stage. The whole drama
of the Apocalypse is thus acted. Symbolic beings
perform symbolic actions. The dramatis per-
sona seen in vision by St John include heavenly,
earthly, and satanic beings, all of whom are repre-
sentative, symbolical. Christ is represented by " a
lamb as it had been slain," or by a mighty, cloud-
clothed angel ; Satan, as inspiring the Roman em*
pire, by "a great red dragon " ; and so on. In no
other way could so vivid a foreview of the events
of ages have been presented in so small a compass.
The book of Revelation comists of John's descrip-
tions of tlie livings moving^ acting hieroglyplis lie
saw. He uses constantly the words " and I saw,*'
" and I heard." In reading it we should try first
to realize accurately what the hieroglyph which
John saw and describes was, and then consider
what it signified. Other Scripture use of similar

New Testament Predictions. 329

figures will in most cases give the clue to the
meaning.

John also takes part in the drama himself. He
speaks and is spoken to, and when he does so he
represents the true witnesses of Christ at the time
and in the circumstances prefigured. He is him-
self a hieroglyph, as it were, and stands as the
representative of the true servants of God who
would be living in the successive periods the
events of which are predicted.

The drama as a whole foreshadows the external
and internal history of the Church from John's
own day to the second advent. As its outward
history depends largely on the state of the world
in which the Church exists, much mere political
history, many purely secular events, such as the
overthrow of the Roman empire, have their place
in this prophetic drama. For just as if a traveller
takes a voyage in a ship, the history of the ship
becomes for the time his history, just as the story
of an individual cannot be told without taking
into account his environment, so the story of the
Church cannot be told without a consideration of
the cotemporaneous state of the world in which
it exists. Moreover Providence employs outward
events in the government of the Church itself ;
wars and invasions are judgments, so are revolu-

^' g i j i

330 Foreview of the Reformation.

tions and insurrections, famines and pestilences.
They have therefore properly their place in Church
history.

But the Church has also an inward spiritual his-
tory, which depends, not on earthly events, but on
luavenly and satanic action. If she is sustained, re-
vived, increased, and rendered spiritually victorious,
it is because her glorious Head is acting in her and
on her behalf. If she is betrayed, corrupted, misled,
or persecuted and oppressed, it is because Satan
is acting against her in and by her enemies. In
the Apocalypse these spiritual agencies are sym-
bolized, as well as material historical events. They
are seen acting, but always indirectly through out-
ward agents. Thus earthly material events are
continually linked in this wonderful prophecy
with their hidden spiritual causes. The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, angels and arch-
angels, and the spirits of the just, are all seen in
action under various symbols ; and so also are the
devil and his agents. Under the symbols of the
dragon and the wild beasts, they are seen opposing
and counterworking Christ, and persecuting and
slaughtering His faithful witnesses.

The visions of this holy and sanctifying book,
to the study of which a special blessing is at-
tached, constitute a prophetic history of tlie Church

New Testament Predictions J 331

and of tlie world from apostolic days to the present
day, and on to t/te end of this age. They are, as you
know, arranged in order in three groups of seven :
first seven seals, then seven trumpets, and then
seven vials. Speaking broadly (for I have no time
to do more, nor is it needful to our subject), the
first six seals represent events extending from
John's own day to the fall of paganism and the
establishment of Christianity in the Roman earth ;
while the seventh contains the seven trumpets and
all that follows. The first four trumpets depict the
Gothic invasions and the overthrow of the old
Roman empire in the fifth century. The next
two trumpets give events in the East instead of
the West, the fifth predicting the Saracenic con-
quests of the seventh and eighth centuries (sym-
bolised as the ravages of an army of locusts), and
the sixth the Turkish invasions of eastern Europe,
which extended from the middle of the eleventh
century to the middle of the fifteenth. These, and
the intolerable misery they occasioned to the Greek
Churches of the East, are symbolised under the
sixth trumpet by the career of the Euphratean
horsemen in the ninth chapter of the book. This
vision brings down the prophetic history to the
fall of Constantinople, the capital of the eastern
empire of Rome, before the Turks in A.D. 1453 ;

332 Foreview of the Refortnaiion.

and the remainder of the fifteenth century seems
covered in the prophecy by the statement that
" the rest of the men who were not killed by these
plagues, yet repented not of the works of their
hands, that they should not worship devils, and
idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and
wood." This description of continued obdurate
and inveterate apostasy and idolatry applies both
to eastern and western Christendom at that time.
Thus we are brought down chronologically to the
end of the fifteenth century ; and ilien there is a
break and a great change in the series of visions !

And what is the next scene that attracts the eye
of the holy seer? It is a vision symbolic of the
Reformation movement of the sixteenth century,
coupled with a retrospective narrative of tfu history
of Christ's true witnesses against idolatry, from the
beginning of the apostasy to the close of the
Protestant Reformation. You will find this most
interesting prophecy in the tenth and first thirteen
verses of the eleventh chapters of Revelation.
Study it carefully at your leisure, and you will sec
that the vision consists of the manifestation of a
glorious mighty angel, who evidently symbolises
Christ Himself, and of the bestowal by Him on
John (in his representative character) of three
things :

New Testament Predictions.

00

1. Of a little open book which he was to eat ;

2. Of a great commission which he was to exe-
cute ; and

3. Of a reed with which he was to measure the
temple of God.

There follows the story of Christ's " two wit-
nesses/' symbolised as two olive trees and two
candlesticks ; the narrative of their doings and
sufferings, of their persecution and slaughter by
their enemies, of their brief, trance-like death, and
of their speedy resurrection and exaltation. Lastly,
there is a great earthquake or revolution, and the
fall of a tenth part of the city, or a tenth part of
Roman Christendom.

Do you ask my grounds for asserting that the
•* mighty Angel " of this vision is no other than
Christ Himself? I will give you them ! His
power and glory, the rainbow encircling His head,
the sun-like brightness of His countenance, and
the resemblance of His feet to pillars of fire— all
these features identify Him with the Son of man
seen by John in the first vision of this book. His
position and his words identify him also with the
one whom Daniel in his last chapter calls "my
Lord." No mere angel is cloud-clothed and rain-
bow-crowned, resplendent as the sun, or speaks

334 Foreviezv of the Reformation.

with a voice full of majesty, or assumes an attitude
which implies the lordship of earth and sea, set-
ting "his right foot on the sea, and his left foot
on the earth." No angel would talk of " my two
witnesses," or claim to give to men power, and
authority. There is a loftiness of tone and a
sublimity of appearance and action about this
Angel that distinguishes Him from all the other
lowly servant angels of the book as widely as
heaven is distinguished from earth. It is the
Lord of angels and of men alike who is manifested
in action at this point in the apocalyptic drama •
and the very manifestation prepares us for events
of the first magnitude, events like those which
succeeded Christ's actual manifestation on earth,
events like the first promulgation of the gospel in
the apostolic age. The manifestation is of course
only symbolic. The prediction is not that Christ
would visibly appear at the juncture in question.
He would act, but indirectly. His action would
be the cause of human action. His glorious in-
fluence and interference would become visible in
the course of mundane events. He would reveal
His power in His providence.

This glorious Being holds in His hand, not seven
stars, as in the first vision, but a little book — opept.
At a. command from heaven, John asks the Angel

New Testament Predictions. 335

for this little book, and receives it with the injunc-
tion, '^ Take it, and eat it up ; and it shall make
thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet
as honey." It is immediately added, "Thou must
prophesy (or preach) again before many peoples,
and nations, and tongues, and kings." Now this
same remarkable figure of eating a book, and then
going forth to proclaim to others its contents, does
not occur here for the first time. We meet it in
the Old Testament, where Ezekiel is commanded
to eat a roll, and go and speak to the house of
Israel ; and the action is thus explained. Ezekiel
says : " I did eat it ; and it was in my mouth as
honey for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son
of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and
speak with My words unto them. . . . All My
words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine
luartf and hear with thine ears. And go, get thee
. . . unto the children of thy people, and speak
unto them, and tell them. Thus saith the Lord
God ; whether they will hear, or whether they will
forbear." We have no question therefore as to the
meaning of this emblematic action in the vision.
John was first to appropriate and digest the con-
tents of the little book, and then to go forth and
proclaim its messages to others as the word of
the Lord.

336 Foreview of the Reforinatiou.

Now what is this little book ? What can it be
but the Bible— that blessed gift of God, His own
word ? It is here seen given afresh, a second time,
to the Church. And indeed, so long had the Bible
been buried in Latin, so long withheld from the
people, so long made void by the traditions of
men, that it was as a new book given afresh to
the Church when it was, as it were, rediscovered,
restudied, and republished by the reformers at the
close of the dark ages.

When Martin Luther, then a student in the
University of Erfurt of about twenty years of age,
first accidentally found a Latin Bible, he was
amazed.

" One day he opens several books of the library, one after
the other, to see who their authors were. One of the
volumes which he opens in its turn attracts his attention.
He has never before seen one like it. He reads the title
... It is a Bible ! a rare book^ at that time unknotim.
His interest is strongly excited ; he is perfectly astonished
to find in this volume anything more than those fragments
of gcspels and epistles which the Church has selected to be
read publicly in the churches every sabbath day. Hitherto
he had believed that these formed the whole word of God,
But here are so many pciges, chapters, and books of which
he had no idea. His heart beats as he holds in his hand all
this divinely inspired Scripture, and he turns over all the
leaves with feelings which cannot be described. The first
page on which he fixes his attention tells him the history
of Hannah and young Samuel. He reads, and his soul is

New Testament Predictions. 337

filled with joy to overflowing. The child whom his parents
lend to Jehovah for all the days of his life ; the song of
Hannah, in which she declares that the Lord lifts up the
poor from the dust, and the needy from the dunghill, that
He may set him with princes ; young Samuel growing up in
the presence of the Lord : the whole of this histor)-, the
whole of the volume which he has discovered, make him
feel in a way he has never done before. He returns home,
his heart full. ' Oh ! ' thinks he, * ivonld it please God one
day to give me such a book for my own I * Luther as yet
did not know either Greek or Hebrew, for it is not probable
that he studied these languages during the first two or three
years of his residence at the university. The Bible which
had so overjoyed him was in Latin. Soon returning to his
treasure in the library, he reads and re-reads, and in his
astonishment and joy returns to read again. The first rays
of a new truth were then dawning upon him. In this way
God put him in possession of His word. He has discovered
the book which he is one day to give his countrymen in that
admirable translation in which Germany has now for three
centuries perused the oracles of God. It was perhaps the
first time that any hand had taken down this precious
volume from the place which it occupied in the library of
Erfurt. This book, lying on the unknown shelves of an
obscure chamber, is to become the book of life to a whole
people. The Reformation was hid in that Bible!* *

Later on, when soul agony had driven the
young student from his loved university into a
Benedictine convent, to seek the salvation for
which he longed, it was the same blessed book,

* D'AUBIGN^ : " History of the Reformation,'* vol. i., p. 1 13.

338 Foreview of the RefomuUtan.

with its glorious doctrines of the forgiveness of
sins and justification by faith alone, that calmed
his storm-tossed spirit, and quickened his soul to
new spiritual life. Staupitz, th6 vicar-general of
his order, who proved himself a true pastor to the
poor young monk, gave him a Bible of his awn.
His joy was great He soon knew where to find
any passage he needed. With intense earnestness
he studied its pages, and especially the epistles of
St Paul. Right valiantly did the young reformer
use the sword of the Spirit thus placed in his
hand.

" The Reformation, which commenced with the
struggles of a humble soul in the cell of a con-
vent at Erfurt, has never ceased to advance. An
obscure individual, with the word of life in his
hand, had stood erect in presence of worldly gran-
deur, and made it tremble. This word he had
opposed, first, to Tetzel and his numerous host ;
and these avaricious merchants, after a momentary
resistance, had taken flight Next, he had opposed
it to the legate of Rome at Augsburg ; and the
legate, paralysed, had allowed his prey to escape.
At a later period he had opposed it to the cham-
pions of learning in the halls of Leipsic, and the
astonished theologians had seen their syllogistic
weapons broken to pieces in their hands. At last

Ne7v Testament Predictions. 339

he had opposed it to the pope, who, disturbed in
his sleep, had risen up upon his throne, and
thundered at the troublesome monk ; but the
whole power of the head of Christendom this word
had paralysed. The word had still a last struggle
to maintain. It behoved to triumph over the
emperor of the west, over the kings and princes
of the earth, and then, victorious over all the
powers of the world, take its place in the Church,
to reign in it as the pure word of God." ^

"Let us believe the gospel, let us believe St.
Paul, and not the letters and decretals of the
pope," Luther was wont to say. "Are you the
man that undertakes to reform the Papacy ? " said
an officer to him one day. " Yes," replied Luther ;
" I am the man. I confide in Almighty God,
whose WORD I have before me." "Sooner sacri-
fice my body and my life, better allow my arms
and legs to be cut off," said he to the archbishop,
who tried to persuade him to retract his writings,
"than abandon the clear and genuine word of
God."

From his lonely, Patmos-like prison in the castle
of Wartburg, in the forests of Thuringia, Luther
gave this priceless treasure, the word of God, to

* D*Aubign£ : " History of the Reformatiorij" vol. ii., p*
129.

340 Foreview of the Reformation.

his country in a translation which is still in use
in Germany. He felt that the Bible which had
liberated him could alone liberate his people. *" It
was necessary that a mighty hand should throw
back the ponderous gates of that arsenal of the
word of God in which Luther himself had found
his armour, and that those vaults and ancient halls
which no foot had traversed for ages should be
again opened wide to the Christian people for the
day of battle." "Let this single book," he ex-
claims, '' be in all tongues, in all lands, before all
eyes, in all ears, in all hearts " ; and again, " The
Scripture, without any commentary, is the sun
from which all teachers must receive light"

And not Luther only, but all the reformers —
like the apostles — held up the word of God alone
for light, just as they held up the sacrifice of
Christ alone for salvation. They gave to the
world the book which Christ had given to them,
which they had found sweet to their souls, though
it subsequently brought on them bitter trouble.
It was an established principle of the Reformation
to reject nothing but what was opposed to ** sonte
clear and formal declaration of tlte Holy Scriptures^'
" Here only is found the true food of the soul,"
said Luther, familiar as he was with the writings
of the philosophers and schoolmen — " here only."

Neiv Testament Predictions, 341

** You say, Oh if I could only hear God ! Listen
then, O man, my brother. God, the Creator of
heaven and earth, is speaking to you."

The New Testament once printed and published
did more to spread the revival of primitive Chris-
tianity than all the other efforts of the reformers.
The translation was a splendid one ; as a literary
work it charmed all classes. It was sold for so
moderate a sum that all could procure it, and it
soon established the Reformation on an immovable
basis. Scores of editions were printed in an
incredibly short time. The Old Testament from
the same hand soon followed, and both were
diffused through a population, familiar till then
only with the unprofitable writings of the school-
men. The Bible was received with the utmost
avidity. " You have preached Christ to us," said
the people to the reformer ; "you enable us now to
hear His own voice." In vain Rome kindled her
fires and burnt the book. It only increased the
demand, and ere long the Papal theologians, finding
it impossible to suppress Luther's translation, were
constrained to print a rival edition of their own.

Once the Bible was thus read in the households
of Christendom, the great change could not be
averted. A new life, new thoughts, new stan-

342 Foreview of the Reformaizon.

dards, a new courage sprang^ up. God's own
words were heard at the firesides of the people,
and the power of the priest was gone. " The effect
produced was immense. The Christianity of the
primitive Church, brought forth by the publication
of the Holy Scriptures from the oblivion into
which it had fallen for ages, was thus presented to
the eyes of the nation ; and this was sufficient to
justify the attacks which had been made upon
Rome. The humblest individuals, provided they
knew the German alphabet, women, and mechanics
(this is the account given by a contemporaiy), read
the New Testament with avidity. Carrying it
about with them, they soon knew it by heart,
while its pages gave full demonstration of the
perfect accordance between the Reformation of
Luther and the Revelation of God.

It was the same in France. In 1522 a trans-
lation of the four gospels was published in France
by one Lefevre, and soon after the whole New
Testament. Then followed a version of the
Psalms. In France, as in Germany, the effect was
immense. Both the learned and noble and the
common people were moved. " In many," says a
chronicler of the sixteenth century, " was engen-
dered so ardent a desire to know the way of
salvation, that artisans, carders, spinners, and

New Testament Predictions. 343

combers employed themselves, while engaged in
manual labour, in conversing on the word of God,
and deriving comfort from it In particular, Sun-
days and festivals were employed in reading the
Scriptures and inquiring after the goodwill of the
Lord."

The pious Brigonnet, Bishop of Meaux, sent a
copy to the sister of Francis L, urging her to
present it to her brother. "This from your
hands/' added he, " cannot but be agreeable. It
is a royal dish," continued the good bishop,
"nourishing without corrupting, and curing all
diseases. The more we taste it, the more we
hunger for it, with uncloying and jnsatiable appe-
tite." " The gospel," wrote Lefevre in his old age,
" is already gaining the hearts of all the grandees
and people, and soon diffusing itself over all
France, it will everywhere bring down the inven-
tions of men." The old doctor had become ani-
mated ; his eyes, which had grown dim, sparkled ;
his trembling voice was again full toned. It was
like old Simeon thanking the Lord for having seen
His Salvation. Farel, the French reformer, main-
tained the sole sufficiency of the word of Grod as
a rule of faith, and the duty of returning to its use.
In the great Protestant Confession of Augsburg it
is by a simple reference to Scripture that the new

344 Foreview of the Reformation.

doctrines of the Reformation are justified. From
first to last, from its incipient germ in the soul of
Luther to the crowning day of the Reformation,
the Bible was the very heart and core of the move-
ment ; and Protestantism has since deluged the
world with Bibles. Do you wonder then that
prophecy makes the giving of a " little book open "
to the representative of the Church at that time
a leading feature of its prefiguration ?

1

1

But you must note next that this was not the
only thing given to John by the mighty angel.
There follows a great commission^ which he was
to execute.

He who of old had said to His disciples, " Go ye
into all the world, and proclaim the glad tidings
to every creature," renews this commission to John
in his representative character, and says to him,
"Thou must prophesy (or preach) again, before
many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings." It is a second sending to the world of the
gospel message, a second appointment of witnesses
to proclaim the glad tidings.

And this was needed, for the fundamental ordi-
nance of gospel preaching had long fallen into
entire disuse among Romanists ; the preacher had
been lost in the sacrificing priest ; the people had

New Testament Predictions. 345

for ages had none to break to them the bread of
life. Luther shrank at first from the office of a
preacher, but it was forced on him by circum-
stances. After he had finished his translation of
the book, and returned from his seclusion in the
Wartburg, he began to publish the truth from the
pulpit as well as through the press. " It is not
from men," he wrote to the elector, "that I
received the gospel, but from heaven, from the
Lord Jesus ; and henceforth I wish to reckon my-
self simply His servant, and to take tlie title of
evangelist^ He began to preach in an old wooden
hall in Wittemberg, and soon the largest churches
were thronged to hear him. Within two or three
years the gospel was being preaclud as well as
read all over Germany, and in Sweden, Denmark,
Pomerania, Livonia, France, Belgium, Spain, and
Italy, and also in our own isle. Bilney had pro-
cured a copy of Erasmus' New Testament, and
found comfort and saving light in its study.
"Then," he says, "the Scripture became to me
sweeter than honey or the honeycomb " ; adding,
*' as soon as, by the grace of God, I began to taste
the sweets of that heavenly lesson which no man
can teach but God alone, I begged the Lord to
increase my faith, and at last desired nothing more
than that I being so comforted of Him might be

346 Foremew of the Reformation.

strengthened by His Spirit to teach sinners His
waysr

Renouncing the Romish title of "priest" and
doctor, Luther, in a treatise against Papal orders,
styles himself simply " tlu preacher^* and the re-
formed Churches provided for a continuance, not
of sacrificing priests, but of gospel preachers. " In
the Popedom," says Luther in his " Table Talk,"
"they invest priests not for the office of preach-
ing and teaching God's word ; for when a bishop
ordaineth one he saith, 'Take to thee power to
celebrate mass, and to offer for the living and the
dead.' But we ordain ministers, according to the
command of Christ, ... to preach the pure
gospel and the word of God." So in the reformed
Swedish Church it was enacted that none should
be ordained who did not approve themselves both
able and willing to preach the gospel. Instead of
putting into the hands of the newly ordained the
chalice and the patten, the reformers presented
them with "a little book" — the New Testament. —
saying, " Take thou authority to read and preacJt
I t/ie gospeiy If a recovered Bible be the first and

I

greatest feature of the Reformation, most assuredly
a renewal of gospel preaching stands next.

But a third thing was also given to John (in

New Testament Predictions. 347

his representative character). In the vision, it
was " a reed like unto a rod," with which he was
to measure " the temple of God, and the altar, and
them that worship therein," omitting^ or casting
out, the outer court, which was given up to the
Gentile enemies who were treading down the holy
city. It was a measuring reed in the first place,
but it looked like a rod of princely or ecclesiastical
authority — "a reed like a rod." This measuring
of " the temple of God " — the symbol of the out-
ward, visible Church in the world, — and this com-
mand to define and measure out its boundaries
and dimensions, including one portion, and ex-
cluding another, looks like a direction to give
attention and definition to the ecclesiastical foun-
dations and boundaries, or limits, of the new
reformed Churches, and to separate them in a
formal public manner from the apostate Church
of Rome.

If Protestant Christianity owed its birth to the
Bible, and its early growth to revived gospel
preaching, it owed its continued existence to its
definite constitution as a separate ecclesiastical organi-
zation from Romanism, This came in due course.
At first the reformers had to attend to the core
and kernel of the movement; its spiritual side
claimed all their efforts. A reformation of creed,

348 Forevuw of the Reformation,

of doctrine, of life and manners, of worship, of
ordinances — all this came first. But there fol-
lowed — and if the change was to be permanent
there luid to follow — something additional and of
a different character. When the child was born, it
had to be dressed and named ; life first, organiza-
tion afterwards.

There had to come an embodiment of the new
life in a new Church organization, and — a definite
separation from Rome. It was not merely that
Rome on her part excommunicated and anathe-
matized those whom she called heretics. The
reformers felt that they had a solemn duty to
perform. They had to justify their own separa-
tion from the apostasy by a public denunciation
of it as such. They had to cast it out as any part
of the true Church of Christ. They had to con-
stitute a new evangelical and Protestant Church,
to provide it with schools and colleges, with min-
isters, services, and buildings, and all the out-
ward requirements of a fully organized system of
religion.

This accordingly was the next stage of the
Reformation movement, both in Germany and
elsewhere. And this could not be done effec-
tually without the concurrence of the govern-
ments of the respective countries. If Romish

New Testament Predictions, 349

authority was to be thrown off, if public property
was to be converted to Protestant uses, if Papal
ordination was to be rejected and Papal bishops
refused, the governments must evidently take
part, and sanction the great change. Hence the
need of the " rod " of authority ; nor was it lacking
when the time came for its use.

I have not time to trace the story. The Elector
John, assuming to himself, like our own Henry
Vni., the supremacy of the Church as a natural
right of the Crown, " exercised it with resolution
and activity, by forming new ecclesiastical consti-
tutions, modelled on the principles of the great
reformer." "Come, let us build the wall, that
we be no more a reproach," said Nehemiah to
the Jews. And so Luther and Melanchthon and
other reformers urged the introduction into the
reformed Churches of new formularies of public
worship, the appropriation of the ecclesiastical
revenues to the reformed parochial clergy and
schools, and the ordination of a fresh supply of
ministers independently of Rome. A general
visitation of the churches was made by the
prince's desire, to see to the execution of the new
system, and complete what might be wanting to
the establishment throughout Saxony of a

SEPARATE EVANGELIC CHURCH.

350 Foreview of the Reformation.

In this feature the Reformation differed from
all the earlier movements of a kindred nature, such
as that of the Lollards in England or of Huss in
Bohemia. As Schlegel remarks in his ''Philo-
sophy of History," " It was by the influence Luther
acquired by asserting the king's authority, as well
as by the sanction of the civil power, that the
Reformation was promoted and consolidated.
Without this, Protestantism would have sunk into
the lawless anarchy that marked the proceed-
ings of the Hussites." This change took place in
all the reformed States, the measuring reed like
a rod being given by the civil authorities to the
founders of the new communions, that they might
solidly construct them on a pernianent basis.

The outer court, representing the apostate
Church, they on the other hand formally cast out.
It was insisted on at the Diet of Augsburg that
''the Roman pope, cardinals, and clergy did not
constitute the Church of Christ, though there
existed among them some that were real mem-
bers of that Church, and opposed the reigning
errors. That the true Church consists of none
but the faithful, who had the word of God, and
were by it sanctified and cleansed ; while, on the
other hand, what Paul had predicted of antichrist's
coming and sitting in the temple of God had

New Testament Predictions. 351

had its fulfilment in the Papacy ; and that the
reformed Churches were not guilty of schism in
separating themselves, and casting out Rottlllh
superstitions." In his answer to the pope, Luther
writes : " Rome has cut herself off from the uni-
versal Church ; if ye reform not, I and all that
worship Christ do account your seat to be pos-
sessed and oppressed by Satan himself, to be the
damned seat of antichrist, which we will not be
subject to nor incorporate with, but do detest and
abhor the same."

This formal separation of the reformers from
the apostate Church, and this formal organization
of new Churches, holding evangelic faith, and using
a pure ritual, is the fulfilment of this part of the
symbolic prophecy of the Reformation ; but we
must not pause to justify this interpretation, as a
most important and interesting section of our sub-
ject lies still before us. Thus far we have seen
that the Reformation is predicted as first the
result of the action and interference on her behalf
of the glorious Head of the Church, that it was
produced instrumentally by a recovered Bible and
by a renewed gospel testimony in all lands, and
that it issued in the development of a new eccle-
siastical organization.

A retrospective narrative of the history of

553 Foreview of the ReforrncUion.

Christ's two witnesses is then given, which time
forbids my fully expounding now. These witnesses
unquestionably represent the faithful evangelic
Churches, which held fast the gospel all through
the dark ages of Roman apostasy. They are
called candlesticks ; and we are told in the first
chapter of the book that CANDLESTICKS SYMBO-
LIZE Churches. They are also called olive trees,
and this figure is used in Zechariah (where two
such trees are seen supplying tlu candlestick with
oil) to represent faithful ministers. The double
symbol seems to predict, that all through the
darkest period of antichristian apostasy, faithful
ChurcluSy ministered to by faithftd pastors^ should
exist. They might be few and feeble, persecuted
and hidden, small in numbers, and inconspicuous
in status ; yet acting as Christ's faithful witnesses,
and holding forth the word of life, they would
keep alight amid the darkness the lamp of truth.

The number two is used apparently in compliance
with the law of testimony. " In the mouth of two
or three witnesses shall every word be estab-
lished." These witnesses are not individuals, but
Churches, and their prophesying or preaching
lasts all through tfie dark agesy through the entire
period of Papal domination, with the exception of

New Testament Predictions. 353

one brief interval during which they are to all
appearance killed — extinct.

In addition to witnessing for Christ and to His
gospel, these evangelical Churches would also
witness against the Roman antichrist and his
assumptions. And the result would naturally be
intense opposition on his part. When their testi-
mony reached this point, he would make war with
them, until at last he would overcome and kill
them ; that is, he would silence their witness com-
pletely. He would so exterminate Bible Christians
wherever they were found in Christendom, by
persecution unto death, that as ivitnessing Chtirclus^
maintaining a public testimony to the truth, they
would cease to exist Individuals, of course, would
still — like the seven thousand in Israel who had
not bowed the knee to Baal — hold fast their
integrity; but such would be the power of the
oppressor, that they would have to hide their heads
and hold their peace, in face of a mighty and
triumphant and universal idolatry. This state of
things would however be of very brief duration ;
for at the end of three years and a half the death-
like silence would be broken, the voice of true
testimony would once more be publicly heard, the
witnessing Churches would experience a wonderful
and startling resurrection, which would greatly

A A

354 Forcview of the Reformation.

alarm the enemies who witnessed it ; and instead
of being oppressed and extinguished, the faithful
Churches would thenceforth be exalted and esta-
blished. Such is the prediction of Revelation xi.
translated from symbolic into plain language.

Now to those who are familiar with the Church
history of the middle ages all this reads like
history. It is a sketch from nature, in which all
the leading features of a well known landscape
are clearly discernible, though laid down only in
a small miniature. All came to pass precisely as
here foretold. As superstitions and apostasy
darkened down over Christendom, and an ever-
increasing multitude faithlessly bowed the knee to
Baal; as the man of sin gradually developed his
power and his false pretensions at Rome, — ^protests
arose here and there, and witnesses for Christ
sprang up whose records remain with us to this
day. In the East there were the Paulicians, who
arose about the middle of the seventh century, and
whom we know principally through the writings of
their foes, who brand them as heretics. Already,
even at that date, the priests withheld the Testament
from the laity as too mysterious for the compre-
hension of common people, and a sort of paganized

Christianity had begun to prevail, when a man

t

named Constantine, who had come into possession

New Testament Predictions. 355

of the gospels and of the epistles of St. Paul, and
received their teachings into his heart, set himself
— like the great apostle himself— to propagate
the truth by extensive missionary labours. He
pledged his followers to read no other book, and
hold no other doctrines than those of Scripture,
and his thirty years of labour produced what his
enemies called a sect, but what seems to have
been in reality a true Christian Church, A per-
secuting edict was issued against it; Constantine
himself was stoned to death, his successor burned
alive, with other leaders of the party. A sub-
sequent president of the sect, one Sergius, writes,
" From East to West and from North to South, I
have run, preaching the gospel of Christ, and
toiling with these my knees." His faithful
ministry lasted for thirty-four years, and tended
to the large extension of the Church, which was
bitterly persecuted by the eastern emperors of
Rome. He too sealed his testimony with his
blood, urging his followers to "resist not evil."
The Empress Theodora slaughtered and drowned
one hundred thousand of these Faulician Chris-
tians, without extinguishing them. Her cruelties
however at last drove them to resistance, and they
lost to some extent the purity and godliness which
had marked their earlier days. They spread into

356 Foreview of the Refortnation.

Thrace and as far as Philippopolis, and even as late
as the twelth century it was found impossible to
reconcile them to the Catholic faith.

In the West, confessors of Christ were similarly
raised up in the early part of the seventh century,
just when Gregory the Great was founding at
Rome the distinctive system of Latin Christianity.
Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles, protested both by
word and deed against image worship — one of the
most characteristic features of Romanism. In
the great Council of Frankfort, A.D. 794, under
Charlemagne, a protest was made by the emperor
and three hundred bishops of the West, in
opposition to the popes, on this subject of imaore
worship ; and the Council of Paris, in A.D. 825,
accompanied its decrees against the practice with
an express rebuke to the pope. In fact, the
GalHcan Churches at this time held many views
which we should now call Protestant, in opposition
to the doctrines already prevalent at Rome ; such
as the sufficiency of the Scriptures, prayers in the
vulgar tongue, the nature of the eucharist, and the
truth as to justification and repentance, the folly
of relics and pretended miracles, and other similar
practices.

Claud, the good Bishop of Turin, has been called
" the Protestant of the West." He was a contem-

New Testament Predictions. 357

porary of Sergius — " the Protestant of the East "
^ — in the ninth century. He was a true, fearless,
enh'ghtened witness for Christ, though men called
him a " heretic" He took Scripture as his guide,
and protested against all the Romish innovations.
He delighted, like Augustine, to set forth Christ
and Divine grace through Him as the all in all in
man's salvation. "With the utmost fulness, un-
reserve, and precision he asserts the great doctrine
of man's forgiveness and justification in all ages
through faith alone in Christ's merits, and not by
any works of the law, ceremonial or moral."

Claude of Turin, though thus faithful, was not
martyred, for the Papacy had not at that time
established its supremacy in Savoy; but he was
sorely persecuted, and his prophesying or preach-
ing was *'in sackcloth," like the emblematic wit-
nesses. " If the Lord had not helped me, they
would have swallowed me up quick," he writes.
" They who see us do not only scoff but point at
us." His diocese was a wide one, and his influence
great, nor did it soon pass away. Traces of its
effects may be found long after his departure ;
faithful witnesses continued to hold and teach the
truth, as the corruptions around them increased.
A sect who are mentioned by their enemies as
"prophets" in the tenth century seem to have

358 Foreview of the Refortnaiion.

been spiritually descended from this good Bishop
of Turin, and his sphere continued in Papal esti-
mation to be a hotbed of heretics.

Later on, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
we have numerous accounts of "heretics," who
were brought before the Councils of Orleans,
Arras, Toulouse, Oxford, and Lombers. The
accounts still extant of the examination of these
so called heretics show that, so far from being such,
they were men who witnessed a good confession,
and held fast the doctrines of the apostles. They
' denied all the distinctive teachings and practices

\ * of Popery, and were blameless and godly in

* their lives, even by the admission of their foes.

? : Berenger, in the middle of the eleventh century,

1 was the founder of a fresh witnessing Church, or,

? . as his enemies put it, a fresh sect of heretics. He

\ > was principal of a public school, and afterwards

j Archdeacon of Angers, and began by contending

I against the dogma of transubstantiation. He was

; a brilliantly clever, learned, and good man, and

much venerated by the people. His doctrines
were condemned by Papal councils ; he was
deprived of his benefice : but he had not the
fortitude of a martyr, and was at last driven to
retract through fear. Still he employed poor
scholars to disseminate his doctrine, and died a

New Testament Predictions. 359

penitent for his own want of courage and fidelity
in A.D. 1088.

Time would fail me to tell of Peter de Bruys
and his disciple Henry — the Whitefield of his age
and country — who, after having almost overthrown
the Papal system in Languedoe and Provence,
was seized, convicted, imprisoned, and some say
burned ; of the heretics of Cologne in 1 147 who
"bare the torment of the fire, not only with
patience, but with joy and gladness " ; of the thirty
poor publicani^ as they were called, tried at
Oxford in 1160, who, convicted of holding the
truth of Christ and denying the errors of Rome,
were "branded on their foreheads, beaten with
rods before the eyes of the populace, . . .
publicly scourged, and with the sounding of
whips cast out of the city."

A prohibition having been previously made that
none should succour or shelter them, these poor,
persecuted witnesses for Jesus, whose garments
had been cut down to the girdle — though the
weather was cold and inclement — perished in
helpless wretchedness, yet singing, " Blessed are
ye, when men hate you and persecute you ! *'

Nor can I pause to speak of the Henricians,
who were condemned in 1165 for ^l^^^f noble
testimony to the truth, and against the errors of

360 Foreview of the Reformation.

the wolves in sheep's clothing who were called
priests ; nor of others who formed links in the
long chain of witnesses which extended from the
seventh to the twelfth centuries. One and all
they endured privations and sufferings, which bear
out the emblem of being clothed in sackcloth ;
and one and all they exhibited a self-denial, an
unwearied zeal, and a degree of consistency and
fortitude which show they were sustained by the
power of Christ, according to this prediction : " I
will give power unto My two witnesses, and they
shall prophesy, clothed in sackcloth."

But I must pass on to the great witnessing
Church of the Waldenses. Would that I could
tell its thrilling story ! Read it for yourselves ; it
deserves to be restudied in these dangerous days
of latitudinarian indifference to truth or false-
hood in doctrine. This far-famed " sect," or true
Church of Christ, arose in A.D. 1179 ; some of its
members were present at the third Lateran Coun-
cil, with their books. Pope Alexander III. showed
them some favour, but they and their writings
were condemned and anathematized by his suc-
cessors, and persecution forthwith arose against
them. They had a powerful missionary spirit
however, and their views soon spread in every
direction ; Provence, Languedoc, Arragon, Dau-

New Testament Predictions, 361

phin6, and Lombard/ were speedily permeated
with the gospel, as preached by them. Their
doctrine, as illustrated in their ancient poem called
*• The Noble Lesson," was scriptural and spiritual ;
and they protested against the Romish system,
as one of soul-destroying error, against the con-
fessional, against purgatory, against masses for
the dead and the assumption of power to forgive
sin, and against the love of money which marked
the whole system. They denounced the Papacy
as antichrist in a separate treatise. These
Waldcnses united all their communities into the
bond of one Church, cultivated learning, eschewed
mere ignorant fanaticism, and were filled with zeal
and prudence. Their motto was, "The light
shineth in darkness " ; and their symbol or crest,
a lighted candle in a candlestick^ the very symbol
employed in this prediction of them and their
fellow witnesses.

But we must now recall that the prophecy, not
only presents the whole line of faithful witnesses
as sufferers and mourners by the sackcloth em-
blem, but that it predicts that at a certain stage in
their history the Roman wild beast would in some
specially definite way make war against them,
conquer them, and kill them. This part of the
prophecy began to receive its fulfilment at the end

362 Foreview of the Reformation.

of the twelfth century, when, at the third Lateran
Council (A.D. 1 179), the Popedom roused t /self collec-
tively to a war of extermination against heretics.
Previously to this, separate members of the system,
acting alone and independently, had opposed the
truth by force and cruelty. But in the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, Romanism, then
in the plenitude of its power, gathered itself to-
gether for a great, determined, united, and i>ersis-
tent effort to crush out all that opposed its
supremacy, and to clear Christendom of heresy.

This deadly onslaught against the saints was
predicted, as you will remember, both by Daniel
and by John in their foreviews of the Roman
I antichrist. He was to wear out the saints of the

Most High, and prevail against them. Here the
I same fierce and fatal antagonism comes in as an

; incident in the career of the two representative

" witnesses," who symbolize the succession of
evangelical Churches, which kept up the testi-
mony of Jesus during the dark ages. During
the three centuries we have just mentioned the
; furnace was heated seven times hotter than it was

■

wont to be heated. Persecution raged systemati-
cally. The fourth Lateran Council, in 12 15, sanc-
tioned all former plans for the extirpation of
heresy, urged their adoption with renewed vigour,

\
1

New Testament Predictions, 363

and subordinated secular authority to spiritual
powers for the purpose. If kings would not clear
their dominions of heresy, their subjects were to
be absolved from all allegiance to them. Crusades
against heretics were to be organized, and to
secure the same privileges and rewards as crusades
against the Turks. The Holy Scriptures were to
be interdicted to the laity ; even children were to
be forced to denounce their own relatives.

All sorts of methods were to be used for the
detection of heretics ; bishops were to gird
themselves for the work of ferretting out and
exterminating them ; and all the Franciscan and
Dominican monks were to supply instruments for
carrying out this process of inquisition and blood.
The Waldenses and Xlbigenses were, of course,
especially singled out for extermination. A cru-
sade was proclaimed against them, and plenary
absolution promised to all who should perish in
the holy war. Never was a more merciless
spirit of murder exhibited than by these terrible
crusaders against the meek and lowly and Chris-
tian-spirited Vaudois. The Inquisition — that in-
vention of Dominic, or rather Gregory IX. —
established its horrid tribunal for making inquest
after unseen, secret " heresy " ; and wherever any

364 Foreview of the Reformaiion.

revival of true religion took place, or any coi
fessors of Christ could be fqund, there they wei
hunted, if possible, to death. ' Genuine disciples <
Christ, under whatever name they might pas
whether called Petrobrussians, Catharists, Wa
denses, Albigenses, Wicliffites, Lollards, Hussite
Bohemians, or any other name, it mattered not-
to the torture and the stake with them if the;
held fast the gospel of Christ ! Savonarola, on
of the wisest and worthiest of his age, was burn
at the stake in 1498. Seven years of cruel wa
raged against the Hussites, and a civil persecutioi
more bitter still. Eighteen thousand soldiers wen
sent into the valleys of Piedmont, towards the enc
of the fourteenth century, to exterminate the Wal.
denses of Piedmont, and appropriate to themselve<
all their property. The Christians of Val Louise
in Dauphiny, were actually exterminated, burned
alive, and sulTocated in the caves in which they
had sought refuge. Four hundred infants were
found dead in their mothers' arms, and 3,00a
perished in the struggle.

Lorente calculates, from official reports, that in
the forty years prior to the Reformation, the
Inquisition alone burned 13,000 persons and con-
demned 169,00a The latter half of the fifteenth
century was a time of Satan's raging against the

t

New Testament Predictions. 365

saints. But in spite of racks and prisons and
sword and flame, the voices of the witnesses of
Jesus were still raised in behalf of the truth, and
against the power and pretensions of antichrist

At last however, as the fifteenth century drew
to a close, the furious crusade seemed about to
accomplish its object. The beast had all but con-
quered and killed the witnesses, according to the
prediction. The strong figure employed of the
witnesses lying dead for three and a half days,
means, of course, that their testimony was silenced,
they no longer prophesied ; they were silent, help-
less, extinct for a brief period. They were worn
out. The wild beast from the abyss had prevailed
against them. For the moment the struggle was
over.

The fulfilment of this part of the vision was at
the opening of the sixteenth century, just before
the Reformation movement commenced. Hear
Mosheim's description of the crisis. "As the
sixteenth century opened no danger seemed to
threaten the Roman pontiffs. The agitations
excited in former centuries by the Waldenses,
Albigenses, Beghards, and others, and afterwards
by the Bohemians, had been suppressed and ex-
tinguished by counsel and by the sword. The
surviving remnant of Waldenses hardly lived,

I

i

i

I

i

t

/

366 Foreview of the Reformation.

pent up in the narrow limits of Piedmontese val-
leys, and those of the Bohemians, through their
weakness and ignorance, could attempt nothing,
and thus were an object of contempt rather than
fear." Milner, the Church historian, says that at
this date, though the name of Christ was professed
everywhere in Europe, nothing existed that could
properly be called evangelical. All the confessors
of Christ, " worn out by a long series of conten-
tions, were reduced to silenced " Everything was
quiet," says another writer; ^^ every lieretic exter-
ininated!' This was not of course literally true.
The Lord knoweth them that are His, and had
even in that darkest hour of the night that pre-
cedes the dawn. His own who served Him secretly.
But so far as collective testimony before Europe
was concerned, the witnesses were dead ! Their
enemies gloried in the fact. The Lateran Council
congratulated itself that Christendom was no
longer afflicted by heresies, and, as one of its ora-
tors said, addressing Leo X., "Jam nemo reclamat,
nullus obsistit." "There is an end of resistance
to the Papal rule, and religious opposers exist no
more." And again, " The whole body of Christen-
dom is now seen to be subjected to its head^ i.e.
to thee." Leo commanded a great jubilation, and
granted a plenary indulgence in honour of the

New Testament Predictions. 367

event. Dean Waddington, describing the close of
this council, says : " The pillars of Rome's strength
were visible and palpable, and she surveyed them
with exultation from her golden palaces." " The
assembled prelates separated with complacency
and confidence, and with mutual congratulations
on the peace, unity, and purity of the apostolic
Church." "The power of Rome was de facto para-
mount in the Church." So Neander says : " The
edifice of an unlimited Papal monarchy had at that
time come victoriously out of all the preceding
fights, and established itseli on a firm basis. In
the last Lateran Council at Rome, the principle of
an unlimited Papal power was established, in oppo-
sition to the principle of general councils, and the
Waldenses and Hussites had no more any import-
ance to fight against the Papacy." So another
writer^ says : "At the commencement of the six-
teenth century Europe reposed in the deep sleep
of spiritual death. There was none that moved
the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped."

The witnesses were dead ! Never before, and
certainly never since, was Rome able to congra-
tulate herself that heresy was extinguished and
heretics exterminated from the face of Christendom.

> Cunninghame.

368 Foreview of the Reformation.

It is a fine, striking hieroglyph of the crisis that
the prophecy presents. There stands the fierce
wild beast monster from the abyss ! He has pre-
vailed against his defenceless human victims. The
struggle has been long and hard ; it has made him
all the more savage and impatient : but it is over
at last ! His jowls still drop with gore, his claws
are red with blood as he stands glaring with his
fierce eyes on the pale, cold, silent corpses of
Christ's two witnesses, so long empowered from
above to resist and defy all his might.

As John watched the sad scene, did there not
recur to his mind scenes in the amphitheatres of
pagan Rome, scenes such as Dord has imagined
and painted for us, scenes with which the exile of
Patmos was all too familiar ? The arena strewn in
the pale moonlight with the cold, stiff corpses of
the faithful witnesses of Christ ; and the victorious
wild beast, glutted and sufficed with their flesh and
blood, standing guard over the remains! That
was tJie symbol. The reality was — witnessing
Churches silenced by long and bloody persecution.
The time — a.d. 1514, the close of the last Lateran
Council, which proclaimed to the world in a for-
mal, official manner the fact that all opposition to
Rome /tad ceased.

Now note the sequel : In 15 17 the Reformation

New Testament Predictions, 369

began — the movement which, like a snowball
growing ever greater as it rolls along, has in the
year 1887 one hundred and fifty millions of ad-
herents, all professing the faith of Christ in oppo-
sition to the apostasy of Rome ! Witnessing
Qhmcki^s—protestant Churches sprang up every-
where, and have been multiplying ever since.

What shall we say ? Is not this a resurrection
of the witnesses ? Rome had crushed them, had
she ? So she thought ! But she knew better
before fifty years had rolled by ! She knew better
when Germany threw off her yoke, and England
withdrew from her communion, and Holland re-
sisted her legions, and the trumpet of Protestant
defiance deafened her ears, and the earthquake of
Reformation revolution shook her throne, and
when the outburst of heavenly light so illumined
the minds of men that they laughed at her once
dreaded excommunications, sat unmoved under
the thunders of her interdicts, and boldly tearing
the mask of mother Church from her face, exposed
her as the mother of harlots and abominations of
the earth !

They were dead, were they, the witnesses of
Christ ? They had no longer any voice to testify,
any courage to struggle, any fortitude to resist ?
So Rome fancied, — till the spirit of life from God

B B

I

370 Foreview of *he Re/omtatton.

entered into them, and they rose up a mighty host
to proclaim the glad tidings throughout Europe,
to do and dare and die in their myriads, denounc-
ing Rome's " doctrines of devils " with such bold-
ness and power as to arrest the attention of the
world, and to produce a revolution of unexampled
greatness in Christendom. Rome reeled on its
seven hills as if shaken by an earthquake, and a
"tenth part" of the Babylonian "city" fell
England, one of the ten kingdoms into which the
western Roman empire had been divided, fell away
— separated from Latin Christendom. Thousands
perished in the terrible struggle which ensued in
many lands, and Rome was worsted in her warfare.
The rise of Protestantism was, as the very name
attests, the resurrection of t/ie witnesses ; the re-
formers themselves recognised it as such, and their
enemies also. Pope Adrian, Leo*s successor, wrote
in a brief to the Diet of Nuremberg, " The heretics
Huss and Jerome seem now to be alive again in
the person of Luther."

The Reformation of the sixteenth century com-
menced in the year 15 17. The translation and
publication of the word of God, the definition of
Protestant doctrine, and the founding of Protestant
Churches occupied the next half century, while the
liberation of Protestant States from Papal dominion

New Testament Predictions. 371

was not completed till the century which followed.
During much of this period the " war " of the
"wild beast" against the "witnesses" continued,
and with it the sufferings, " sackcloth " testimony,
and slaughter of the latter.

The birth of Protestant Churches and nations in
the first half of the sixteenth century did not how-
ever, as we know, mark the close of Rome's bitter
and bloodthirsty opposition to the truth. The
Papal war against the witnesses continued to rage
all through that century and all through the next
with undiminished hatred and cruelty. But there
was one great difference. In pre- Reformation times
the beast had the best of it ; he "prevailed against"
the saints ; he wore them out, and was at last so
far victorious that for a few brief years he com-
pletely silenced all corporate testimony to the
truth. But after the marvellous resurrection of the
witnesses, after the uprising of powerful Protestant
communities, duly organized on a permanent basis
and backed up by civil power, the Papacy was
never again able to silence the witnessing Churches
(IS a whole^ never again able to prevail against
them simultaneously in all quarters. Her victims
had been transformed into her powerful enemies ;
and while Rome prevailed against the reformers in
some lands, they prevailed against her in others.

372 Foreview of i/ie JRe/ormation.

Henceforth Roman Christendom was divided into
two camps ; and, as of old, the house of Saul grew
weaker and weaker, and the house of Da\'id
stronger and stronger, so there was a gradual loss
of power on the part of the Papacy and the Papal
nations ; and as time passed on, a gradual growtb
in political influence, material prosperity, intellec-
tual enlightenment, and social condition, on the
part of Protestant nations. But at first the struggle
was a sore one. Just as Pharaoh pursued the
people after he had been compelled reluctantly to
let them go, and pursued them to the annihilation
of his own power, so Rome pursued the young
Protestant Churches of Europe to her own undoing
in the end. She stirred up opposition and inter-
national conflicts, instigated bloody massacres and
cruel exiles and banishments, and plunged the
reformed communities into a sea of sorrow and
trouble : witness the terrible massacre of St Bar
tholomew with- its 60,000 victims in France, the
Marian persecutions in England, the cruel slaugh-
ter in six brief years of 18,000 Protestants in th<
Netherlands, the desolating Thirty Years* War ir
central Europe, and tJie revocation of the Edict oj
NanteSy which in 1685 exiled 400,000 HuguenotJ
from France and caused the death of nearly a<
many more. This may be regarded as t/te /as*

Neiu Testament Predictions, 373

great act of the Papal war against the witnesses.
Protestantism had to pass through a long drawn
out agony before Rome recognised, not its right to
exist, for she still denies that, but its existence and
growth as a fact against which it was useless to
fight It was not till the close of the seventeenth
century, not until the glorious Revolution which
placed William of Orange on the throne of England
in 1689, that Protestantism was firmly established
in England. This event took place about three
and a half years after the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes. Papal supremacy had been abrogated in
England in 1534, but in the reign of Mary and
again under the Popish Stuarts its very existence
was imperilled afresh. The Peace of Ryswick, at
the close of 1697, first completely established the
civil and religious liberty of Protestantism.

All this proves that while the first stage of the
resurrection of the "witnesses " took place at the
commencement of the Reformation movement of
the sixteenth century, their exaltation to political
power and supremacy, the establishment of Pro-
testantism, occupied a much longer interval. Like
all other similar great movements, the Reforma-
tion, starting from an epochs extended over an era.

Space forbids the exposition of the chronology
of this most remarkable period, including its rela-

"n*

374 Foreview of the Refonnation.

tion to the 1,260 years of prophecy. Suffice it I
say, that the interval from A.D. 1534, the date <
the abrog;ation of Papal supremacy in Englant
and of the publication of Luther's Bible in Gei
many, to a.d. 1697-8, the date of the complet
establishment of Protestantism at the Peace c
Ryswick, is separated by exactly 1,260 lunar year
from A.D. 312-476, or the period which extendei
from the fall of paganism at the conversion
Constantine to the fall of the western Romai
empire.

I have not attempted, nor could I in the com
pass of this lecture attempt, to expound fully thi
wonderful Reformation vision of the book of Reve
lation. I have only glanced at its leading features
There is in it very much more of the deepest in
terest which I dare not touch at this time becausi
it would take me too far. But have I not sait
enough to convince you that the great and blessec
revival of true doctrine and of spiritual life whicl
took place between three and four centuries ago
and which we call the Reformation, was both fore
shadowed in Jewish history and foretold in Chris
tian prophecy, and that in connexion with each o
these wonderful predictions the seal of God's appro
val is conspicHoiisly set on the movement? Wha
is the vision of Revelation x. ? One of a Divini

New Testament Predictions. 375

interference, giving back to the Church the Bible
and the preaching of the gospel, and formally
separating between apostate Christendom and the
true Church. What is the retrospective narrative
told by the angel ? It is the story of witnessing
Churches, sustained for long centuries amid sorrow
and poverty and shame, destroyed at last as cor-
porate bodies by the ferocious attacks of the
Roman beast, resuscitated however after a very
brief interval, and exalted to political power in
spite of all enemies. Such is the pre4iction ; such
have been the facts. How came that strange pre-
diction to be incorporated 1,800 years ago with
these sacred writings ? Realize, if you can, the
stupendous marvel of the fact that it is Jiere in this
booky and that myriads of men of all nations were
for ages engaged, all unconsciously to themselves,
in fulfilling it. Realize, if you can, the sublime
tenderness and sacred, sympathising approval with
which the Saviour uttered those simple words,
" My two witnesses.** Yes, Lord, they were Thy
witnesses, those poor, persecuted Lollards and
Huguenots, those martyred Waldenses and Pauli-
cians ! Thy witnesses. Thou blessed Sufferer, who
didst Thyself resist unto blood, striving against
sin ! They were witnesses to Thy grace, to Thy
glory, to Thine all-sufficient atonement, to Thine

376 Foreview of the Rfformation.

only high priesthood and sole mediatorship ; an:
for this they suffered, for this they died ! Thty
suffered with Thee; they shall reign with Tha,
according to Thine own word, " Where I am, thm
shall also My servant be." " My two witncssts"
Ah, Lord, how Thou didst love Thy faithful mai'
tyrs 1 How Thou dost hate the cruel and evi
system which for ages made bitter war upon tiem
and would fain do so still ! In persecuting then
did it not persecute Thee? Oh, how often dids
Thou ask otpope and prelate, as of Saul of Tltsu
in earlier days, " Why persecutest tliou Afe f " A
we think of these things, must we not soar
the feelings of the psalmist, and say, " Do net
hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee ? Am I r.c
grieved with them that rise up against Thee?
Far, far be it from us to sympathise with th
persecutors and lightly esteem the true witnesse
as is the fashion with too many in our days ! Li
us rather maintain against the great enemy of th
gospel the same testimony they held fast ami
his fiercest onsisughts, and thus share with thei
the honour of being numbered by Christ amon:
His faithful witnesses.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

ON THE PRACTICAL BEARING OF THE

SUBJECT,

T T TE trust that the lectures to which you have
^ ^ listened have produced in your minds the
profound conviction that the existence and cha-
racter of Rpfiianism — the entire history of the
Papacy — was foretold in the Bible long ages
before that evil power arose in the earth. If so,
the conviction will bear fruit, for knowledge
influences conduct. Several practical results of
an important nature should follow, otherwise we
should not have cared to expound to you this
great subject.

And first, let your knowledge of this truth con-
firm and deepen your confidence in the Divine
inspiration of Scripture, None but God can thus
foresee and foretell the events of a long series of
unborn ages. In these symbolic prophecies the
history of twelve or thirteen centuries is written
in advance. Compare them with anything else in
the entire circle of literature, and you will realize

377

378 Romanism and the Reformation.

that they stand apart as a thing unique, like a
living man in a gallery of statues.

The miracle of the existence of these prophecies
in the book, and of their fulfilment in the facts of
history is so great that few minds can grasp it.
That not only twelve or thirteen, but twenty-five
centuries of history should have fallen out exactly
as it was foretold in the days of Daniel they would,
is a marvel that nothing but incarnation itself can
exceed. It is a stupendous miracle in the world
of miiidy that world which rises high above the
world of matter. It evinces more markedly the
finger of God than any mere physical sign, how-
ever great, could do. It appeals to the intelli-
gence of the human mind ; it challenges the
recognition not of the senses, but of the conscience.
It sets a seal of supernatural wisdom on the entire
Bible. None but God could have delineated before-
hand the Papal power. Its very unnaturalness
forbids the possibility of its being the fruit of
human imagination. That a power claiming to
act for God, to be " as God," and enthroned in the
temple of God or Christian Church, should yet be
His most determined enemy, the opposer of His
truth, the destroyer of His saints, the great agent
of Satan in the earth ; that it should by fraud and
corruption and false pretences rule the world for

Concluding Remarks. 379

ages from the very same seven-hilled central city
whence it had already been ruled for other ages
by military force ; and that Roman rule should, in
its Christian stage, shed more saintly blood than
in its pagan stage, — all this could never have been
anticipated by man, but only foretold by God. It
is a demonstration which candour cannot resist of
the Divine inspiration of this holy book.

Is not this a practical result? Let criticism
carp as it may, it cannot blind our eyes to this
gigantic fact^ that twenty-five centuries of history
have, in their leading outline, exactly corresponded
with Bible predictions. We are bound to conclude
that the page that bears the prophecy was written
by a divinely guided pen. The tremendous im-
portance of this conclusion I need not indicate.
I solemnly charge you to reverence this book. It
will judge you in the last day. Heaven and earth
may pass away, but not a jot or tittle of the word
of God shall ever fail. Trust its promises ! They
are as true as its predictions. Tremble before its
warnings and its threats ! They will as assuredly
be fulfilled as its prophecies have been. Study its
sacred pages, never think you know it all ; it is as
fathomless in its wisdom as is the mind from which
it emanates. I have been studying it for more than
thirty years, and I am convinced that it has oceans

380 Romanism and the Refomtation.

of truth which I have not yet explored. How few
really study it! and yet it has riches of wisdom
which exceed those of all the libraries on earth.
And remember that as certainly as it unveiled
beforehand the past history of the Church in the
world, so surely does it unveil and illuminate her
critical present and her glorious future. The
guide book that has proved true thus far may be
trusted till we reach the goal.

Secondly, there are personal, social, and civil
duties as regards Romanism and the Reformation
arising from the truth we have learned which are
of primary importance, and which I must indicate
and urge on you before I close.

What is the present position of Romanism in
the world ? and what the condition of the Re-
formed Churches? You must be able to answer
these questions before you can clearly see your
own practical duties in relation to this subject.

As to Romanism, I have shown you that its
present stage is that of decay, and swiftly ap-
proaching destruction. Its rise took place one
thousand three hundred years ago; it reached the
height of its dominion _;ff^ hundred years ago; it
received its first fatal blow in the Reformation
over three hundred years ago, its second in the
French Revolution at the end of last century, and

Concluding Remarks, 381

a third in the unification of Italy and the liberation
of Rome itself from Papal rule in 1870. The final
blow is yet to fall, at the fast approaching advent
of Christ, as described at the end of the nineteenth
chapter of Revelation.

To enable you to realize the extent and steady
increase of this consumption and decay of Roman-
ism, I will mention a few facts and give you a few
figures.

1. Just before the Reformation Rome boasted
that heresy was extinct in Christendom. Not a
Protestant existed ; she had slain the witnesses of
Jesus. Now the number of Protestants is variously
estimated at from one hundred and thirty-six to
one hmidred and fifty millions of mankind. In
the national convention of Protestants held last
year in Glasgow, the last figure was given as the
correct one. Including the Greek, Coptic, and
Armenian Churches, there are two hundred and
fifty millions of professing Christians, opposed to
Rome, and only one hundred and eighty millions
subject to her. She has therefore no claim what-
ever to supremacy or universality, but is in a
minority, as compared with other Christians.

2. Romanists have, during the present century,
increased sixty millions, owing to the natural
growth of population. At the end of last century

382 Romanism and the Reformation.

they numbered one hundred and twenty millions ;
now they are one hundred and eighty millions.
But Protestants have in the same period grown
from forty millions to one hundred and fifty
millions. Jn other words Romanists have in-
creased fifty per cent., and Protestants two
hundred and seventy-five per cent. Going on
at the same ratio, Protestants will, by the end of
this century, equal or exceed Romanists in the
world. Had they increased at the same rate, the
Papacy would now have had four hundred and
fifty millions of adherents, instead of only one
hundred and eighty millions. It is a decadent
cause throughout the world.

Among the English-speaking populations the
proportions are still more remarkable, and when
it is remembered that this section of mankind
includes the most enterprising, prosperous, and
powerful nations of the earth, the facts are most
suggestive. Out of the hundred millions who
speak English, only one-seventh are Romanists,
including all the Catholics in Ireland and America,
in Africa and our colonies. Everywhere amon^
the intelligent, educated English-speaking races
Romanism is an effete religion, and its votaries
are being absorbed by the purer and more
vigorous faith. In America it declined twenty

Concluding Remarks. 383

per cent, in the ten years between 1863 and 1873.
In Montreal alone there are five congregations of
ex-Romanists. Even in Ireland Romanism is de-
creasing and Protestants are increasing ; that is,
the disproportion between the two grows less each
decade.

As regards the United Kingdom, the facts are
most remarkable and cheering. At the beginning
of this century the Romanists numbered one-third
of the population. Now they are only one-seventh.
The proportion of Romanists has decreased
from one-third to one-seventh, and that of Pro-
testants has increased from two-thirds to six-
sevenths. In other words, whereas in 1801 every
third man was a Papist ; now only every seventh
man is such. The population has in this interval
increased from sixteen to thirty-five millions. Pro-
testantism has trebled its numbers, and now reaches
over thirty millions, while Romanism remains
stationary at about five millions. Had it thriven
like Protestantism, it would have had fifteen
millions.

Now these statistics tell their own tale. As
surely as Romanism rose in the sixth century and
culminated in the thirteenth, so surely is it decay-
ing and falling in the nineteenth. Not only has it
lost all temporal sovereignty and all direct political

384 Romanism and the Reformation.

\

power, but it has ceased to hold its own in the
world, and especially in the foremost nations of it,
even as regards its adherents. It is consuming and
wasting, diminishing while others are increasing,
and losing even the semblance of a right to the
proudly arrogated title of catholic.

But this is only one aspect of the subject.
There is another, and a very important one,
Romanism is, and has been all through this
century, and especially during the last fifty years,
MAKING A DESPERATE EFFORT TO SECURE A
RENEWED ASCENDENCY IN OUR OWN EMPIRE,
AND ESPECIALLY IN ENGLAND. It has enor-
mously increased its working staff and its working
centres, During the last quarter of a century, that
is from 1S50 to \Z%l,\X^ priests in Great Britain
have increased by 1,641, its churches, chapels, and
stations by S66, its monasteries and convents
by SSS, and its colleges by 20. This immense
and rapid growth is not owing to any propor-
tionate increase of adherents, though it is of course
designed to secure such an increase. But it
indicates " the determination of the Papacy to try
issues on the grandest scale with Protestantism
in its stronghold." We iiave to face a deliberate
and desperate effort on the part of this wealthy,
highly organized, and centralized system, to weaken

Concluding Remarks. 385

and, if possible, subjugate the champion of Pro-
testantism in the earth. The present perplexities-
of England are the result

" Whether we believe it or not, we are again in the old
battle, which we thought had been won at the Reformation'
and at our Revolution. It is the struggle for power between
the priests of Rome and the people of England. The one,
a party small in number, but organized, united, and un^
wearied. The people, the majority, but divided, distracted,
and deceived.

'* The Church of Rome has never concealed her claim.
Her chief, Dr. Manning, has repeatedly asserted it. She
is to lay down the laws which we are to obey. Our Govern*
ment is to receive and enforce them. Her success now in-
Ireland is only a step in her imperial progress. She will
never rest till she has gained her ends, till our throne hat-
ceased to be Protestant, and our Parliament is subservient
to her will. Nor is her scheme unreasonable, though, as
yet, incomplete. She has gained a section of the Anglican
clergy, who adopt her principles, use her worship, and teach
her dogmas. She returns a considerable section of the
members of the House of Commons, who think, speak, and
vote as she desires. She uses this section to bring pressure
to bear on Government and parties. To the Liberals she
speaks the language of Liberalism ; to the voluntaries she
is a voluntary. A large body of the English dissenters,
and two-thirds of the Free Church of Scotland, have fallen
into her trap, and are now her tools. In Parliament she
is strong. She moves members through their constituencies.
She fills some of the public offices with her creatures. She
assails all by importunity, flattery, or threats. She has
gained a premier, who is possibly her disciple — certainly

C C

386 Romanism and the Refomtation.

her accomplice ; through him she commands a cabinet.
She works incessantly through the press. No publication
too small for her hand ; none too strong- for her agency.
She is ser\'ed by a host of devoted troops, who work with
all their soul for her, under all sorts of names, in all places
and disguises : reporters, writers for the press, literary and
scientific men, ministers of State, preachers in the pulpits
of the Church and of dissent, masters of schools, inspectors
and examiners. She enters families by governesses, tutors,
nurses, and domestics. She has secured a large section
of our upper classes, and every day she gains more. She
draws them by shows, by music, by taste, by frivolity and
reflection, by dissipation and remorse. She works on the
hearts of women by their fancies, their love of pleasure, and
their fear of pain. She makes the wealth of men her
exchequer, and the influence of the rich becomes hers.
From the marquis down to the carpenter, she considers
none below her notice or too strong for her power.

" Against this disciplined and able confederacy, you — the
English people — have to stand. And for such a fight you
are ill prepared. Your impulse is right, your disposition
is good ; but impulse and feeling are insufficient against
unscrupulous and unwearied conspirators. You are divided
by parties, distracted by business, weakened by indifference.
Yet the issue is great. It is, whether we are to keep the
rights and liberties which our forefathers gained? Your
freedom stands on your faith ; and, if your faith fails, your
freedom will fall That is the lesson of your own history ;
for all that we ever won of liberty was had through the
strength of Protestant convictions. I ask you to weigh the
issue. It is no light matter. It is your life. Don't despise
or underrate your adversary, but don't flinch or quail before
him. Rome has in her service the highest intellect and the
most untiring zeal. She is served with the talents of the

Concluding Remarks. 387

ablest and the passions of the keenest. She uses the vices
of men as well as their virtues ; and she has no restraints.
She adapts herself to all forms of government and all states
of society. She plies every class with arguments suited to
its habits, and she can prevail as well with the accomplished
and jaded man of fashion as with the illiterate peasant.

" The history, which I now put before you, tells you what
strides she has made in England in the last forty years. It
is for you to decide whether she will go on till she has
mastered you, or whether you will re-assert your power and
compel her to obey your laws. That is the real question. I
have given you the facts ; draw your own conclusions, and
act like thoughtful men."^

We urge you carefully to study the pamphlet
to which these words form the preface. It is a
catalogue of facts, and they prove that all our
Protestant privileges are in peril, and that it be-
hoves us to be on our guard. Rome makes no
secret of her object ; it is to reunite England to
Latin Christendom by re-establishing the Papal
supremacy here. "If England is ever to be re-united
to Christendom," says Cardinal Manning, " it is by
submission to the living authority of the vicar
of Jesus Christ The first step of its return must
be by obedience to his voice, as rebellion against

* J. C. COLQUHOUN : " Progress of the Church of Rome
towards Ascendency in England traced through the Parlia-
mentary History of Forty Years." London : Macintosh, 24,
Paternoster Row, E.C.

388 Romanism and the Reformation.

his authority was the first step of its departure." *
He proceeds to show that religious toleration is
a complete delusion, that the true Church can
tolerate nothing but absolute and unconditional
submission. " Neither true peace nor true charity
recognise tolerance ; the Church has a right to
require every one to accept her doctrine " ; that " the
duty of the civil power is to enforce the laws of
the Church, restrain evil doers, and punish heresy."
"It is astonishing," he writes, "how small is the
space rightfully left to the exclusive domination
of the civil power. . . . Even in passing laws,
Parliament must defer to the Church The State
may enact a law, but it must see that it in no way
contravenes the higher laws oft/u Church^' ^

Dr. Manning plainly asserts that Rome has
entered on a struggle between the supremacy ot
the pope and that of the Crown, that it is a
struggle for life and death, and that it embraces
the whole question of the Reformation in these
countries. As Colquhoun remarks, " It is the old
battle fought under the Plantagenets, whether the
law of England is to be sovereign and supreme,
or whether we are to have a confederacy of Roman
priests, aided by treacherous English priests, brav-

* " Essays on Religion," p. 19.
' J bid,, p. 458.

Concluding Remarks. 389

ing English law, defying the British Parliament,
and trampling on the sovereign's crown."

One of the avowed objects of the "Catholic
Defence Society " is the removal from our statute
book of the coronation oath and the Act of Settle-
ment, which limit the possession of the crown of
England to Protestants. Cardinal Manning con-
siders that Rome has the full right to depose a
Protestant sovereign.

"The election of a prince in a Christian com-
munity cannot be put in the category of a purely
civil act If therefore an heretical prince is
elected, or succeeds to ttu throne^ the Church has
a right to say, * I annul the election, or / forbid
the succession^ Or again, if a king of a Christian
nation falls into turesy^ he commits an offence
against God, . . . and against his people. . . .
Therefore it is in the power of the Church, by
virtue of the supreme authority with which she
is vested by Christ over all Christian men, to
depose such a prince in punishment of his spiritual
crime, and to preserve his subjects from the
danger of being led by his precept and example
into heresy or spiritual rebellion." ^

There is no mistaking this doctrine. Leo XIII.
has a perfect right to depose Queen Victoria ; nay,
* " Essays on Religion," pp. 458, 459.

390 Romanism and the Refomuition.

more, it would be a bounden duty for him so to
do, if he had the power. He has not^ and he is
never likely to have that power; but meantime
we have foolishly given him the power to cause
serious political trouble in her realm, and he is
availing himself to the full of the opportunity.

This is, be it observed, no antiquated claim
quoted from mediaeval times ; it is published in
England in this nineteenth century by one who
is styled the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
And it is no mere theory, no mere fancy sketch ;
it is a working drawing, as architects would say,
a practical scheme which Rome is steadily en-
deavouring to carry out

The chances of his ever bringing England back
under his sway are very remote; but if "home
rule" could be obtained for Ireland, it becomes
at once a Papal kingdom and a perpetual menace
to England. This therefore is an object to be
attained by any and every means. The chief result
of home rule is to be the extirpation of Pro-
testantism in Ireland. " The woes of Ireland are
due to one single cause — the existence of Pro-
testantism in Ireland. The remedy can only be
found in the removal of that which causes the
evil. . . . Would that every Protestant meet-
ing-house were swept from the land ! Then

V\

Concluding Remarks. 391

would Ireland recover herself and outrages be
unknown."^

That this attempt would be made is not to be
questioned. Cardinal Manning insists that it is
a sin, and even an "insanity/' to hold that men
have an inalienable right to liberty of conscience
and of worship, or to deny that Rome has the
right to repress by force all religious observance
save her own, or to teach that Protestants in a
Catholic country should be allowed the exercise
of their religion.

" Catholicism/' says a Romish magazine, '' is the
most intolerant of creeds ; it is intolerance itself>
because it is truth itself. The impiety of religious
liberty is only equalled by its absurdity."

Conceive what home rule in Ireland would
be in the light of these statements I

A most important point to be borne in mind
in the consideration of this question is, that
Romanism is not a religion merely, but a political
system. We are of course bound to allow to
Roman Catholics the liberty of conscience which
we claim for ourselves ; but we are not bound by
any law, human or Divine, to allow them the right
of conspiring for the overthrow of our liberties
Government, and empire. Adam Smith well says :

> " Catholic Progress."

;

I

392 Romanism and the Refortnatian.

" The constitution of the Church of Rome may
be considered llu most formidabU combination that
was tver formed against tlu authority and security
of iivil g^ovcmmettt, ^^ v/e\\ as against the liberty,
reason, and happiness of mankind." *

Peace and prosperity are impossible under Papal
and priestly rule, as all history attests. "The
Papacy," says Prince Bismarck, " has ever been a
political power which, with the greatest audacity
and with the most momentous consequences, has
interfered in the affairs of this world." The ques-
tion before our country now is, whether we are
willing to make a further and most decisive
advance on the road in which we have already
travelled too far, and to grant to an alien and
antagonistic political power a most real practical
supremacy over five millions of the queen's subjects
in Ireland, including a million of loyal Protestants
in that land.

I cannot close these lectures without urging you
to study this subject more thoroughly, and to get
well grounded in your Protestant principles, A
dangerous laxity on doctrinal matters marks the
present day. Multitudes hardly know what they
believe, or why they believe what they do. In
' "Wealth nf Nations," p. 337.

Concluding Remarks. 393

Reformation days people knew the ground on
which they had become Protestants ; but we have
been so long sheltered behind the bulwarks
erected by our fathers, that we have forgotten
that we may have to defend our own civil and
religious liberties, and neglected to furnish our-
selves with arms for the conflict. It does not
do however to be unprepared and defenceless in
these perilous times. Let me urge you to read
up carefully the history of the Reformation and
something of the Romish controversy. Read up
also the history of your country in the days of
the Stuarts, when a dark conspiracy existed to
enthral England once more, and to force our free
Protestant land back under the terrible tyranny
of Rome. A similar conspiracy exists again now.
Call at John Kensit's, 18, Paternoster Row, and
purchase some of his cheap and popular Protestant
pamphlets. They will open your eyes as to this
great subject. Get some armour, and gird it on,
for, believe me, you will have tp do battle for the
liberties that have made England what she is
this day. Ignorance is weakness ; knowledge is
power. When you know with some degree of
fulness and accuracy what it is to be a Protestant,
how you will prize the privilege of bearing the
name, and resolve that none shall rob you of it !

394 Romanism and the Reformation.

Above all, ground yourselves firmly in a compre-
hension of t/ie three Bible foreviews of Romanism
to which I have directed your attention, for the
sword of the Spirit is the word of God.

Lastly, I would urge you to avoid all tamper-
ing with the bastard Romanism which is called
Ritualism, or High Churchism, and which
abounds, alas ! all over England. It is simply
Romanism slightly diluted, Popery disguised with
a thin veil. Wherever you have a " priest " instead
of a preacher, an " altar " instead of a communion
table, wax candles instead of the sunshine of
Divine truth, ceremonial instead of sound doc-
trine, sacraments instead of saving grace, intoned
liturgies instead of earnest, heartfelt prayers,
splendid music instead of spiritual worship, gor-
geous vestments instead of gospel truth, tradition
and "the Church" instead of "as it is written,"
and crossings instead of Christ, — there you ftave
Romanism, no matter what it may be called.
Beware of it, however attractive the architecture
and the incense, the music and the solemn cere-
monial. Think of the apostles and their upper
chamber ; remember that Judaism gave us " a
shadow of good things to come," not a model to
be imitated^ and that all this outward show is not
worship " in spirit and in truth," such as God our

Concluding Remarks. 395

Father seeks from His people now. The Apostle
Paul styles this sort of thing a return to "the
weak and beggarly elements," to bondage, and
says of those who in his day had been beguiled
by ceremonies, **I am afraid of you," etc. Let
not these things beguile you from the simplicity
in Christ. What 1 will you play with a poisonous
snake because it has a gaily speckled back ? Keep
clear of all danger to your eternal interests. The
pitfalls of Popery are concealed by fair flowers,
but they will none the less be your ruin if you fall
into them. The Bible brands it as antichristianity,
and traces its origin to Satan. I warn you to
stand aloof from the whole thing if you would
not be involved in its solemn judgments.

Remember that there is only ^^one Mediator
between God and man"; that there is but"^//^
sacrifice for sins," offered " once " for all and " for
ever." Through the " one Mediator," by the " one
sacrifice," " draw nigh to God, and He will draw
nigh to you." You need no mediator between
yourself and Christ. The priest is a false intruder
there. Jesus calls you to come to Himself. He
is both human and Divine. He is bone of your
bone, and flesh of your flesh, yet without sin.
God is in Him. He is one with us, and one with
God. Suffer nothing to come between your soul

396 Romanism and the Reformation.

and Him. Suffer no saint, no angel, no virgin, no
priest, to come between you and Jesus Christ Go
to Him for the pardon of all your sins. Make to
Him your confessions. He can absolve you, and
will, yea, does, if you truly believe in Him.
Priestly absolution is a lie. It is a blasphemous
pretence. The sentence, " / absolve theel^ whether
from the mouth of Romish priest or Protestant
minister, is profane. Be not deluded by it Your
fellow sinner cannot absolve you from the sins you
have committed against God. Turn from these
idols and vanities. Jesus is all you need. His
blood is sufficient to atone, and cleanses those who
simply trust in Him ^^from all sin^ " Search the
Scriptures," they testify of Him. Come to Him
that you may have life. His heart is touched with
the feeling of our infirmities ; none can sympathise
as He can ; none can help as He. To you, to
each one, He says, " Him that cometh unto Me
I will in no wise cast out" " Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but My words shall not pass
away." " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou
hast the words of eternal life." Thou alone art
ALL we need, for Thou alone art "ALL IN ALL."

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

■SSSW^^^L